S T A T I
E I Y
VO LUM E 10
NUMBER 4
NOVEM BER
2002
MBS Grows Up
By Ellen G.K. Rubin
Scarsdale, New York
Our fourth Conference in eight years - it's no surprise
that we are growing up. From the quiet conversations at
our opening reception in Milwaukee's Wyndham Hotel to
the in-depth subjects of our lecture topics, we are showing
signs of maturation. Is it the effects of 9/1 1 or are we
settling down in general? A bit of both, I think.
Since the last
conference, the squeals of
delight at rekindling old
acquaintances had
morphed into fervent hugs,
handshakes, and private
tete a tetes of friends
playing "catch up." While
newcomers, and there were
many, were warmly
welcomed, the Movable
Book Society had now
become an extended family
flung across the world. We
were honored to have the
Grand Master, Waldo Hunt, holding court (near the
delicious food buffet) and admirers playing musical chairs,
dropping into seats to catch pearls of wisdom and bask in
the light of our "Progenitor." We missed Wally at the last
meeting when he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement
Award.
The gears of the Conference, held September 19-21,
2002, meshed more smoothly than ever. Experience
counts! At the 2000 Conference in New York City, Steve
Horvath had suggested to Ann Montanaro that
Milwaukee's William F. Eisner Museum of Advertising
and Design host our next convention. This immediately
provided a destination and a supporter of almost half our
events. (Ann was visibly calmer these past two years.) The
Museum would mount an exhibit of pop-up advertising to
coincide with the Conference. We were catapulted out of
the child-like fantasy world of our magical books into the
real world where pop-ups are used to sell stuff.
Wally Hunt
Hildegard Krahe -
"Mrs. Meggendorfer"
By Theo Gielen
The Netherlands
In one of the most idyllic parts of Bavaria, the scenery so
well known from The Sound of Music, I had an opportunity
this summer to meet and interview Mrs. Hildegard Krahe,
the well-known connoisseur of the works Lothar
Meggendorfer, the ultimate maker of movable books. Since
the death of her beloved husband Peter in 2000, she has
lived in a newly-built luxurous apartment residence
constructed in the typical Bavarian style with large wooden
balconies overgrown with colorful blooming flowers.
Though she told me the village of Bayerisch Gmain is
situated halfway to the mountains and catches the breezes
from one of three neighboring valleys, this day in June was
very hot, with no refreshing wind at all.
Since she doesn't like to be questioned about her personal
life, it took me several telephone calls before she agreed to
an interview. Traveling from the city of Salzburg in Austria
in the direction of the German Bad Reichenhall, the
romantic city where for centuries the world's rich and
famous took advantage of the waters, I worried if Mrs.
Krahe, who had celebrated her 80 th birthday just two weeks
before, would feel
fit enough for my
visit. I planned to
leave after a short
stay. But I
underestimated my
hostess! After a
whole day of talking
about her life, her
publishing
activities, her
research in the field
of movable books
and so much more,
I had to leave
because she had an
appointment to go into the theater with a friend that
evening? I am far from 80, but I was very tired when I
traveled to Munich that evening.
Mrs. Hildegard Krahe
Continued on page 2
Continued on page 18
The Movable Book Society
ISSN: 1097-1270
Movable Stationery is the quarterly publication of The
Movable Book Society. Letters and articles from members
on relevant subjects are welcome. The annual membership
fee for the society is $20.00. For more information
contact: Ann Montanaro, The Movable Book Society, P.O.
Box 1 1654, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08906.
Daytime telephone: 732-445-5896
Evening telephone: 732-247-6071
e-mail: montanar@rci.rutgers.edu
Fax: 732-445-5888
The deadline for the next issue is February 15.
MBS Grows Up, continued from page 1
The reception also offered the opportunity for attendees
to see the vetted books up for the Meggendorfer Prize, a
change from the last conference. It was felt that since the
prize should go to the very best of movable books, the
selection could not be limited to those which had the
largest printings and, therefore, were the most available to
members. What about an unseen small gem or a foreign
book? (Members take note! Jot down your proposed books
acquired over the next 2 years.) Hence, vet the books and
have them perused at the conference. Also, it was
reasoned, we are not the pop-up book society but the
Movable Book Society. If a successful book is the melding
of illustrations, story, and movables, of any kind, members
should consider books which have more than just pop-ups.
Therefore, the vetted books included all kinds of movables
and were examined and voted on by the attendees.
Members wandered in all evening, some still with the
"white knuckles" garnered from turbulent flights from the
east coast. The presence of Paul O. Zelinsky, the Caldecott
winner for Rapunzel - 1998 (Honors- //a/we/ & Gretel '85,
Rumpelstiltskin '87, Swamp Angel '95), sent a ripple
through the group. Knowing Ann had Kees Moerbeek's
limited edition Rumpelstiltskin in her room to later show
the Society, I dragged the always shy Paul upstairs. Surely
a Caldecott Honors for the same fairy tale would make
him interested in seeing another's rendition. And he was.
Paul painstakingly inspected the princely wrappers and
gingerly opened the single elaborate pop-up. He was
impressed. It triggered a wonderful story.
When Paul's own Rumpelstiltskin was released, he
received lots of mail. One letter was from an outraged
woman who took exception to Paul's depiction of the
spinning wheel without a treadle. Her letter ranted on and
on about the omission's effect on children who wouldn't
see the mechanism by which the wheel worked. Paul
humbly told us he had researched extensively on spinning
Kees Moerbeek's Rumpelstiltskin
wheels and had
placed his story
in the mid
1500s. He
politely wrote
the woman that
the treadle had
not been
invented until
1620.
Friday began
our first full day,
held at the
Eisner Museum. While the Museum was within a hearty
walking distance in the rapidly-being-restored Landmark
and Historic section of Milwaukee, for some, transportation
was needed. (Some of us are "longer in the tooth" than
others.) No problem. Ann donned her invisible chauffeur's
cap, hopped into the van she'd rented, and shuttled members
back and forth. (That gal does everything!) We were able to
see Milwaukee's version of Downtown. (I am a New Yorker
and this was a Friday. A blind man wouldn't need help
crossing the wide streets!) The van's route took one of the
numerous bridges giving us a glimpse of the river.
Milwaukee is cross-hatched with small bridges making for
a walkable and beautiful city, free of graffiti.
Roy Dicks, now seasoned in his role as program
coordinator, began with the video portion of the day's
schedule. These included: The Movable Book Society on the
Martha Stewart Show (with Robert Sabuda and Ellen G.K.
Rubin), Pam Pease on her local news for her book, The
Garden Is Open, Robert's ABC Disney being hand-
assembled in Ecuador, and Kees Moerbeek's construction of
his The Diary of Hansel and Gretel. In a way, these last two
presaged the direction the Conference would take, namely,
the Society's interest in how our precious books are actually
conceived and made. Due to technical difficulties, and there
were many, only the German version of Moerbeek's
presentation was working. Nonetheless, the animated
pictures, with lively music, were more than sufficient to see
into the mind of the creator and witness the project from
start to finish.
The first
lecture, "Big
Hair and Glue
Tabs," was by
the somewhat
reluctant, Linda
Costello.
Linda Costello with her pop-up rabbit
Continued on
page 12
Building a Pop-up Book
By Chuck Fischer
New York, New York
Building a pop-up book
is filled with many of the
same pleasures and
challenges as building one's
own home. First one
searches for the perfect
setting to build your house
(the publisher, Charles
Miers at Universe). Then
you review other designs
that you like and start
dreaming and sketching your new home (wish lists and
research). You then edit your list of ideas to a workable
size (for Great American Houses and Gardens it was
choosing which eight houses and gardens to include). You
then choose how many rooms and square feet the house
will have (budget and space available). Next you connect
with and start working with the most creative architect
and contractor (David Hawcock, paper engineer).
Visualize each room and its functions and draw up a set of
plans to use while building the house (sketch of each pop-
up spread) Start building (make a white paper dummy).
Put in the finishing details (illustrating the final art).
Moving day, boxes, boxes, boxes (ship the book to stores -
boxes, boxes, boxes). Arrange furniture (placement of the
book in stores) Invite friends and family to the open house
(book party!). Celebrate a job well done, and like most
other architects and designers, you start planning the next
project and the next.
Two years ago I put together a book proposal featuring
water color room renderings of mural projects I have been
painting for many years in some of the finest houses
throughout America. My literary agent, Brian McCafferty
of Lionize Inc. sent the proposal out to a number of
publishers and Charles Miers, the publisher of
Rizzoli/Universe really liked my painting, but not
necessarily the idea behind my proposal. Charles visited
my studio in Manhattan and I was able to show him many
more aspects of my work including my fabric, wallpaper
(Schumacher) and china (Lenox) and fine paper products
(Caspari) designs. He asked if I had ever considered doing
a pop-up book for grown-ups. I had recently seen the New
York Pop-up Book and had previously bought the packs on
art and architecture. Since my passion is painted
architectural and interior design I immediately thought
about creating a book of houses and gardens. In the past
I had toured some American houses, but most of my house
touring had been in Europe. Being especially proud to be
an American designer, I wanted to rediscover American
houses and gardens for myself and share the experience
with others through a pop-up book.
Universe liked the proposal featuring American houses
and gardens and put me in contact with the paper engineer
David Hawcock. I went to Bath, England where he is located
and I showed him very rough sketches. Then I visited all of
the houses and gardens in the book. For the next year I
worked with David, Ellen Cohen, editor at Rizzoli, and
Stacy Yule, editorial assistant. I worked non-stop for many,
many months to meet production deadlines. Upon
completing the artwork and compiling all the photographs
and historical information for the text, David started
working closely with the printer and I started work on my
second book published by Universe titled Wallcoverings
Applying the Language of Color and Pattern. Though it is
not a pop-up book, the book is a visual treat and filled with
hundreds of samples of wallpapers and lively room
renderings I created, using wallpaper as the medium.
I loved creating Great American Houses and Gardens: A
Pop-up Book (Universe Books. ISBN: 078-930-798-7) and
I look forward to creating more pop-up books in the future.
Popping Off the Page
The Art and Magic of Movable Books
Books alive! That Page is Moving!
For centuries, books that
slip, slide, jump, and tumble off the
page have found happy readers of all ages
around the world.
Welcome to the magical
kingdom of pop-up books!
January 17 - May 30, 2003
From the collection of Betty Ann Tranganza
Presented by
Art at the Airport
Monterey, California
Books and Buildings
By Laura Davidson
Boston, Massachusetts
As a young artist, fresh out of art school, I went to
Europe for the first time. I was enamored with everything
I encountered, but most of all by the architecture,
especially the cathedrals. Upon returning to my studio in
Boston, I was compelled to create "book buildings."
My goal was to return to Italy
and travel around the country
finding buildings to study, learn
the floor plans, draw the details,
and submerge myself in their art
history. Back in Boston, I would
then use these drawings as
references for a series of books
that when opened, would
become specific buildings. The
front covers would be made to
look like the building facades.
The pages would be the walls,
and details of the buildings
would pop up or fold out when
made of exotic woods. The pages are linoleum and transfer
prints. The following is a page that opens with a pop-up
print of the Pavia Cathedral model.
Giotto's Campanile
the book opened.
In order to fund this trip, I wrote to everyone I knew,
and told them of my plans. I asked for contributions to
finance this adventure. In return, contributors would each
receive a drawing of a building that I would produce
during my travels. The plan was an unexpected success;
not only did it fund several
months of traveling in Italy, it
also paid for my studio rent for
two months after I returned,
while I created the books. This
is an example of one of the
book buildings from the 1989
series called Giotto's
Campanile. It portrays the bell
tower that stands next to the
Duomo in Florence.
Giotto's Campanile
Inside
Since that time I have
worked with the idea of
showing architecture three-
dimensionally in my books in
various ways. In 1995, the
National Gallery had an
exhibition called "Italian Renaissance Architecture"
which brought together large-scale models and
preparatory drawings from three Renaissance building
projects. After seeing this inspiring exhibition, I created
a limited edition book called Facade. The cover of the
book is painted wood, which depicts a building facade
I live in an old industrial warehouse in Boston that has
been converted into an artist cooperative of live-work
studios. Our building was highly impacted by the Central
Artery/Tunnel Project, or the "Big Dig," this country's
largest public works project. For the past five or six years we
have had nothing but cranes, dust and noise outside of our
windows. The streets and alleys have been dug up on all four
sides of our building. Though it was often a nightmare to
live through, it was also sometimes visually interesting. At
a moment in time when I found the view compelling, I
created an edition called Tunnel Vision. It is the 1999 view
of the Big Dig from my studio window.
While my
neighborhood has been
changing with the
presence of the Big Dig,
and more currently
through redevelopment,
I have been looking at
maps. An early
Abraham Ortelius atlas
has been of great interest
to me. During 2002, 1 created an edition called Mapping My
World -Buildings and Bridges. This book is an atlas of the
three significant places in my life - Boston, Sugar Island in
northern Michigan where I spend part of my summer each
year, and Florence. In each of the three sections in the book,
there are pop-up bridges and buildings. The book starts out
with world map end
pages, and then with
each page the maps
become more and more
specific. For example,
there is a map of I
Michigan on one page.
On the next page, a
map details
Michigan's Upper and
Lower peninsulas, with
a pop-up Mackinac
Bridge connecting the two. The next page is a map of Sugar
Tunnel Vision
Mackinac Bridge
Cabin
Island off the coast of Sault Ste. Marie, and the following
page shows a map of my parent's property on the island
with a pop-up cabin.
In much of my work,
I investigate the
experience of a specific
place at a specific point
in time. By using pop-
up elements in my
books, I am able to
express the appreciation
that I have for
architecture and more
recently, for bridges and other engineering projects. Pop-
up structures are unexpected and can create a magical
moment as the viewer turns the page.
15 Questions with Robert and Matthew
By Adie Pena
Makati City, the Philippines
In September 2000, I
had the opportunity to
observe Robert Sabuda and
Matthew Reinhart in their
New York studios creating
mock-ups for a forth-
coming series of books on
insects. A year later, the
eye-poppingly educational
two-volume "'Young
Naturalist Pop-up Handbook" featuring beetles and
butterflies finally hit bookstore shelves. Early this year, I
asked Robert and Matthew if they were amenable to an
e-nterview and they obligingly provided the following
answers.
1 . Why Beetles and Butterflies'! Why not birds and fish or
whatever?
"We've always loved those wood and glass dioramas with
insects or skulls or whatever in them. Matthew has an
undergraduate degree in biology (with an intense interest
in insects) so we thought, hey, these might make beautiful
pop-up books. Plus there's the bonus of creating a
non-fiction book that a teacher can use in class."
2. Are Beetles and Butterflies the first two volumes of a
series or is that it?
"We're currently discussing the next two titles
(dragonflies and spiders) with Disney. In the meantime
Matthew has created a companion picture book titled
Young Naturalist 's Insect-lo-pedia. It's a complete guide
Robert Sabuda and
Matthew Reinhart
to the insect world for bug fans and will be published in
Spring 2003."
3. Who [Robert or Matthew] did what [paper engineering,
art, research, text, etc.] for Beetles and Butterflies'?
"Matthew wrote the manuscript and created the illustrations
while Robert designed the pop-ups but at times the roles
overlapped."
4. What upcoming pop-up publications are you currently
working on, individually?
"Matthew is developing a biblical version of Noah 's Ark and
Robert is beginning work on Alice in Wonderland."
5. For Robert: Will your "white mouse" have more
adventures? Or has he "retired?"
"The white mouse (with family) returns this fall in The
Night Before Christmas.''''
6. The second line of the poem reads: "Not a creature was
stirring, not even a mouse." So how did you manage to
squeeze in your white mouse? *grin* Or do I have to wait
for the book to find out?
"Sometimes punctuation at the end of a single sentence can
change the sentence's entire meaning. A question mark
makes you think twice about your preconceived notions.
Hint, hint!"
7. By the way, is it just me or is there really a dearth of
pop-up collectibles lately?
"Yes there is. A lack of new ideas and/or vision has left the
industry with fewer titles. The publishing industry moans
and complains about the high cost of making pop-ups, etc.
etc. but a lot of that is nonsense. People will buy a good
pop-up book no matter what the cost. If it's lousy they won't.
And people's tastes are also much more sophisticated now."
8. What's the future of three-dimensional book publishing?
"It will always be here as long new,
intriguing books are created."
9. Your upcoming pop-up
publications [Matthew's "biblical
version of Noah 's Ark" and your
Alice in Wonderland and The Night
Before Christmas] are based on
classics. How do you handle a
tried-and-tested subject matter,
knowing it's been done a million
times before? What approach (or angle) do you take to
ensure that your remake-of-a-remake-of-a-remake will be
"exciting and intriguing."
"I try to make the audience feel like they're experiencing
something more than just a book that happens to have
pop-ups or movables tacked on. I truly want my books,
even if they are based on classics, to be an interactive
journey for the reader that they'll never forget."
10. Are there any new pop-up book artists/publishing
houses worth watching?
"Surprisingly many houses that have never published
pop-ups before are coming out with maybe one, at the
most two, books aimed at an adult audience. Hopefully
this will be a healthy trend."
11. What are both of you doing to ensure that this will be
a healthy trend?
"We continue to propose book ideas that can be
appreciated by adults. We hope they could be enjoyed by
all ages but try to avoid limiting our ideas to just young
readers."
12. Could you name a book or two "aimed at a
sophisticated adult audience" that you'd highly
recommend to collectors?
"I think the Pop-up Book of
Phobias and the Pop-up Book of
Nightmares are prime examples
of more sophisticated books for
adults. And 1 don't mention these
two just because Matthew did the
paper engineering. The idea for
those books came from outside
the pop-up community. They
were originated by a comedian
here in NYC who took us out to
lunch one day and pitched his concept."
13. For Matthew: Are phobias and nightmares part of a
trilogy, or that's it?
"It depends on how twisted society continues to be."
14. How about neuroses? It's very New York and so
Woody Allen. "Neuroses? Why not? Readers seem to love
examining the darker sides of their lives even if it makes
them uncomfortable."
15. Any more collaborations in the near future?
"As they say on "The X Files," we can neither confirm nor
deny future collaborations!"
Pop-Up!
A Review of the Exhibition
at the Los Angeles Central Library
By Peter Price
Los Angeles, California
You know that kid-in-the-candy-store feeling you get
when you find yourself in a room full of pop-up books? The
"Pop-Up!" exhibition running until January 12, 2003 at the
Los Angeles Central Library has it times ten, or maybe a
hundred. The urge to leap about clicking your heels and
laughing hysterically is almost irresistible.
But the impulse to run free is quickly tempered by the
exhibition's clear chronological structure, which encourages
even the most haphazard visitor to go back and start at the
beginning. It's well thought out and organized. A lot of
consideration has been given to detailing 500 years of
movable book history. Half a millennium. Amazing. The
captions and display panels are clear, informative and easy
to follow. And, judging from the reactions of visitors who
were obviously new to the world of pop-ups, it made some
converts to a noble cause.
That's the briefest summary of a complex, well-
considered exhibition deserving as much time and space as
we can spare. So here is the detailed account of what I
discovered, in approximate order of discovery.
I didn't get to the exhibition until nearly two months
after it opened and have so far visited it twice. The casual
downtown passer-by wouldn't know anything was
happening. On approaching the Library's main entrance I
saw no hint that the show was on. Not a good start. Later I
discovered a banner hung a football field's length away on
the furthest corner from the entrance. But it's a big banner,
faces the busiest street, and is in fact the only temporary
signage of any kind on the entire building. None of the other
ongoing shows had anything hanging out. So I didn't
complain.
Once inside, I
realized that there are
actually two pop-up
shows. As well as
"Pop-Up!" there is
also "Leaping Off the
Page." This needs to
be mentioned because
it's obviously linked,
via Waldo Hunt and
several artists, with the
bigger show, although
the graphics for the signage are different and neither refers
to the other. That seems odd and perhaps unnecessarily
confusing for non-pop-up types.
Continued on page 24
Wally Hunt and David Carter
My Three Favorites
By Henk Sikkema
Assen, The Netherlands
On my latest renewal form I made the suggestion of
having collectors write about their top three favorite pop-
up books. Mrs. Montanaro thought it a good idea and she
asked me if I would be the first to write. "Of course I
will," I answered Mrs. Montanaro.
And that's easier said than done. How to choose your
three favorite pop-up books out of a collection of more
than 1,200 copies? I love them all! I love my (few)
Kubasta's. I love my Asschepoester- Dutch for Cinderella
- from the 1890s. I admire all Ron van der Meer's packs,
especially The Architecture Pack (1997), because modern
architecture is another passion of mine. That's why I
cherish Das Berlin-Paket (2001), Frank Lloyd Wright in
Pop-up (2002) and the spread of the skyline of San
Francisco in my copy of Time (September 8, 1986). I like
the books made by Kees Moerbeek and Carla Dijs (they
almost live next door to me!) and of course those by
Robert Sabuda. Did you see his latest title The Night
Before Christmas'! More beautiful and more ingenious
paper engineering is not possible. I love Chuck Murphy's
titles, the humorous books of Jonathan Allen, the so called
''Seven" series by Celia King and The Pop-up Book of
Phobias (1999) and The Pop-up Book of Nightmares
(2001) by Matthew Reinhart.
I'm proud of my copy of
Christmas Kingdom ( 1 99 1 ) by
Jan Pierikowski (with a
miniature book containing the
words of twelve Christmas
carols and an audio cassette
of the same carols sung by the
famous King's College Choir)
and proud I am of my copies
of The Beatles Story (1985)
and The Elvis Story (1985) as
well. In August (!) 1994 on
holiday in France I bought La
Creche de Noel ( 1 98 1 ), the French version of The Nativity
by Borje Svensson. Also one of my favorites.
I love Rives' If I were a polar bear (200 1 ), Circus : A
Pop-up Adventure (1998) by Meg Davenport and that
sweet title I bought this year in France: Barnabe, le Chien
qui ne Sourit Jamais (2001) by Jennifer B. Lawrence and
fantastically illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering (I don't
know the English title). The catalogue of the 1996
exhibition of pop-up books Pop-up: Het Boek in Beweging
in the Dutch town of Haarlem by Rene Stikkelorum: let it
be my number 5; the pop-up hospital scene my son made
for me in 1991 when I had an operation for a hernia there,
my number 4.
So now, "Here are the results of . . . !" But first, why did
I choose these? Well, because for me these titles have
just a little, little bit
Aror-LT&\Nt\5Y
-*-
-i
KENS
'■
~
■M
'J
SY MICHAEL FOREMAN
THE FLIGHT OPTHE
PTEROSAURS
M
A POP-UP gOOB IV KEITH MOiEttV
more or mean
something special to
me. I'll tell you:
Number 3: Haunted
House by Jan
Pierikowski (1979).
I gave this classical
pop-up book (the
Dutch version Het
Spookhuis) to my
son in 1981 for his
6 th birthday. All the years through he treated the book very
carefully: it became the start of my collection. And I still
love it. Number 2: Ben's Box by Michael Foreman, David
Pelham and David Carter (1986). I love this book for its
wonderful pop-ups but
also because it's one of
the rare pop-up books
with an important role
for the story. Read
about Ben's magical
mystery tour in the box
of his mother's
washing machine!
That's why the French
title is Le Carton
Magique. Number 1 :
The Flight of the Pterosaurs by Keith Moseley (1986). No
doubt my first choice had to be a title by Keith Moseley. I
love Hiawatha (1988,), Flight: Great Planes of the Century
(1985) of course and the paper engineering in Tomie de
Paola's titles Giorgio 's village (1982) and The first
Christmas (1984). I enjoy all those beautiful illustrations and
charming pop-ups. And I enjoy them in The Flight of the
Pterosaurs, too. But never in a pop-up book have I read such
a beautiful, poetical text as in the epilogue of this book.
Open it to the last pages - no pop-up! - look at the pterosaur
"gliding silently homeward" and read with me: "And when
on a dying breeze of an evening 60 million years ago, the
last of these great creatures glided silently homeward for the
very last time, none would record the passing or cheer that
final flight. For there would be no tomorrows for this gentle
giant, no more would those great wings be spread to the
warmth of an early morning sun or its call echo across the
ancient sea ..." Put these words on my grave.
I would like to invite Mrs. Carolyn Lilly (visit her nice
and informative website http://popupbooks.net/main.html)
to write about her favorite three pop-up books!
Anton Radevsky
By Theo Gielen
The Netherlands
Ahtoh PaAeecKi
fPAOHHEH AH3A0H
1504 C0<Dl/1fl
Above is the letterhead received on a letter from Anton
Radevsky, Graphic Design, 1504 Sofia. He is the
Bulgarian paper engineer whose The Pop-up Book of
Spacecraft was published in 2000 in ten different
(European) languages by the respected publishing house
of Konemann from Cologne, Germany. Two years before
Graham Brown from the packaging firm of Brown Wells
& Jacobs (BWJ) had shown me a wonderful dummy of a
book that he tried to sell to interested publishers that was
done by this same Mr. Radevsky: The Wonders of
Architecture. But neither Mr. Brown nor the people of
Konemann could tell me more about this new paper
engineer.
Last year at the
Frankfurt Book Fair I
saw a Bulgarian
publisher with some
intriguing dummies of
pop-up books by the
same man, and I decided
to contact him for some
more information about
him and his works as a
paper engineer since he
comes from a country
that never had produced
any movable or pop-up
books before. Through
correspondence with him
I received the information to write this first profile of the
man who got almost the highest possible score for his first
published pop-up book in Robert Sabuda's esteemed
reviews of new pop-up books in the Movable Stationery,
August 2000.
Anton Radevsky was born in 1 95 1 in Bulgaria's capital
Sofia into an artistic family. His father was a writer and
poet and nationally known for his translations of works
from Russian. Though the phenomenon of pop-up books
was (and is) almost fully unknown in Bulgaria, there were
in the 1960s - at least in the capital Sofia - some Russian
3-D books and the well-known works of the Czech
Vojtech Kubasta were available and popular. As a
Doktor
schoolboy little Anton liked and collected them and, in his
words: "I used to destroy them to see how they worked."
After high school, in 1971, he left Sofia and went to the
capital of an other socialist country, the German Democratic
Republic, to be educated as a graphic designer at the
Academy of Arts in Berlin- Weissensee, renowned for this
speciality. He remembers the six years there as a great time.
As his graduation paper he chose to design a movable
children's book though his teachers hesitated since they
didn't think such a book could show his graphic abilities. He
insisted. He did some research on the subject by studying
German movable and pop-up books from the 1920s and
1930s and was happy to get support from a commission of
the children's publishers of Verlag Junge Welt who wanted
to publish the book. He designed a children's reference book
on cars with movable parts and pop-up elements.
Unfortunately the book has never been published since the
publisher had insuperable problems with the production of
such a complicated book and within the socialist economical
system a production abroad (in the capitalist world) there
was no option. In 1977 he returned to Bulgaria and started
to work as a graphic designer. But his love for pop-up books
didn't flag. He built an exquisite personal collection of
western production pop-up highlights from the 1980s,
brought from abroad by his friends. And he continued to
design his own pop-ups. It took until 1988 for a publisher to
get the idea to produce books "in the style of Kubasta."
Anton Radevsky was known to the publisher, since he had
done a series of children's construction sheets (to build
paper models) for them, he appeared to be the only man in
the country who was capable of doing the pop-ups.
Again there was the production problem. But this time
the good relationship with the printing company offered
Radevsky the opportunity
to set up an own
assembly line within the
company. He instructed
the bookbinders, the
clerical staff even the
warehouse men how to
fold the paper artwork
and to glue the pieces on
the right places, and
together they succeeded
in bringing out two pop-
up books in 1989:
Konzert and Doktor
published by the Sofia
based company of
Otecsestvo. Both books
measure 22 xl5 cm., have four spreads with rather simple
fan-folded pop-ups and some movable parts, much in the
tradition of Kubasta. Only the graphic design differs
completely and recalls the best of the experimental Russian
Konzert
children's books from the 1920s when constructivist
artists like Lebedev and Konaschevitsch were involved in
the design of children's books. Mr. Radevsky has a small
collection of these 1920s children's books, inherited from
his father who did translations of some of them before the
war. Most special to Radevsky, however, are the two books
for which his father did the rhyming texts.
While working with the printing company he met
another Bulgarian man, Emil Markov, who offered his
graduation project to the same publisher. Markov designed
two unconventional playbooks with pop-up elements, The
house of Oranges and Struggles of the Knights which
were published about the same time. The designers
became best friends.
Encouraged by the success of having published his first
pop-up books, Radevsky continued to work on the design
of the more complicated techniques in his book about cars.
But since fall of the Berlin Wall and as a consequence the
socialist system in all socialist countries in Eastern Europe
broke down, there began a hard economic period for
Bulgaria. There was no longer an interest in such
frivolities as pop-up books. When some young friends of
his started their own publishing company in the early
1990s, Radevsky did a one spread pop-up Christmas
Stable to support them. Because of a wrong choice of
paper for the pop-up scene, the publication was a
commercial failure for both the book and the company.
Then he met his current publisher Dimitar Zlatarev of
Kibea Publishing who brought Radevsky' s A utomobile: A
Pop-Up Book to the attention of the people of Compass
Productions at the 1994 Bologna Children's Book Fair.
Although Compass finally gave up their plan to produce
the book, the '\vestern" interest in his works encouraged
Radevsky to once more continue his work in paper
engineering.
A summit of
his career, for the
time being, came
when Konemann
accepted his Pop-
up Book of
Spacecraft and
more, to do it
simultaneously in
ten (European)
languages. A
wonderful book
for space-lovers of
all ages, done in
realistic almost
photographical
paintings with
La Ciudad del Saber
"only" four spreads, but the ingenious use of flaps, half
pages, gatefolds, etc. It gives the impression that there are a
lot more spreads. Very complex paper engineering is offered
in the ten multi-piece pop-ups, four flap/tab mechanisms,
four flaps and three removable space vehicles. A novelty has
been built in the second spread where an extra table-land is
hidden behind the spread. It has to be shoved out from
behind and folded forward rectangularly to form the surface
of the moon where the various moon vehicles stand. Because
of the number and ingenuity of the three-dimensional
elements, the book is surely a contender for the
Meggendorfer Prize. The production of this book offered
him the opportunity to visit what he calls "The kingdom of
the pop-up books," the printing and assembling premises of
Carvajal in Columbia.
SPACE
X R A FT
-*&
Before the Spacecraft
came on the market - it took
Konemann quite some time
since the company didn 't have
any experience with the
production of this kind of
book - there was another
production that involved Mr.
Radevsky. His friend Emil
Markov lived for a couple of
years in Spain in the late
1990s and he was
commissioned to do a book to
celebrate the 500 111 anniversary of Alcala University in
Madrid. He planned a pop-up book but since the time to do
the book was restricted, he asked Radevsky to help him.
Markov did the design and the artwork, Radevsky did the
complete paper engineering. The result was a beautiful pop-
up book La Ciudad del Saber (ISBN 84-8138-371-6)
showing on seven spreads the most remarkable episodes
from the history of Alcala University. The good contacts
Radevsky made with Carvajal resulted in the short term
production there.
In the last couple of years Mr. Radevsky has been busy
refining the dummies of The Wonders of Architecture and
Automobile: A Pop-Up Book. I have sounded my praises for
these dummies a several times already in my annual reports
of the Frankfurt Book Fair published in Movable Stationery,
so I don't have to do it once more. Unfortunately, the design
of his The History of Weapons: The Pop-Up Book, praised
by me for its original subject, has not attracted a publisher.
They think it is too controversial and encourage a
remodeling of the book into one on historical fights or
battles...! Being responsible himself for the texts, the
illustrations, the design and the paper engineering of his
books, shows once more the multi-talents of Anton
Radevsky. And since he met James Diaz and David
Hawcock at last year's Bologna Children's Book Fair, he no
longer feels as isolated as a Bulgarian paper engineer.
The 20 th Century Revival of
Overlay Illustration
By Ronald K. Smeltzer
Princeton, New Jersey
What are often called movable books '• 2 - 3 * contain
elements in a variety of forms that revolve, pop-up, flip,
lift-up, or fold-out. The pop-up is the most well known
type of movable book, as they have been made in large
numbers for children over many years. There is, as well,
an active society 5 for pop-ups. The pop-up is often
considered in a category by itself, because it is the only
type of movable book for which action occurs as a result
of just opening the book. Other types of movable books
require some other action on the part of the viewer after
the book is opened. The interest in pop-ups in particular
has inspired numerous publications on the subject of
paper engineering 6 and a very recent publication 7
considers pop-ups and peepshows in the context of paper
engineering. Although the vast majority of movable books
have been published for children, books with overlays
were produced for technical education, and thus may be of
interest to some collectors of technical books.
Overlay illustrations are employed to show in-depth
cross-sectional views of objects, animals, body parts, etc.
by means of attached layers that are lifted in sequence to
reveal hidden details. The individual layers are attached
with small glued tabs to either a lower layer or the base
layer of the illustration. A good overview with many
(static) illustrations on the subject of 20* century overlay
illustration is provided in an unusual diary-calendar 8
published for 1997. For those interested to see a
demonstration of a lift-up overlay, there is a web site '
with a rather bold example.
For the collector of technical books, those with
overlays are appealing because there was a major revival
of this illustration method in color for technical - and
anatomical - publications near the beginning of the 20 th
century, and consequently it is still possible to find
examples in the book trade. Prior to the modern era, lift-
up overlay illustrations are well known in anatomical
treatises from as early as the 16 th century l0 . About 1800 in
England appeared the "red books" with overlays by H.
Repton, the landscape designer; these however were
unique productions done as part of a sales pitch for
Repton's services and only involved one level of overlay
above the illustrated scenes. In the modern era,
publications illustrated with overlays appeared in the early
part of the 20* century usually as multi-volume sets from
France, Germany, and England. In some sets the overlays
are in a separate atlas volume and in other cases they are
interspersed within the text. Oldewarris 8 mentions a few
Dutch publications, which however do not seem to be
common, as I have never seen one in the marketplace.
Little is apparently known about the history of the c. 1900
revival of overlay illustration, and, for example, the records
of the major French publisher, Aristide Quillet, were lost
during World War II 8 . It is evident that the production of
the overlays was often done by someone other than the
publisher of the books. In the case of the two major English
publications from 1908 and 1911, for example, the plates are
labeled "printed in Bavaria"and Oldewarris 'points out that
most of the overlays found in the archives of the Dutch
publisher Kluwer were made in Germany. Bavaria was the
center of production for many types of movable books for
children in the 19* century, so paper engineering was a
skilled art there. Based upon what I have seen in the
marketplace over the last five or so years, production of
books illustrated with overlays persisted in France until at
least 1939, but very likely ended earlier in other countries.
One wonders if the appearance of the publications with
overlays was driven by the growing art of paper engineering
or by content. Since movable books for children were
produced in large numbers in the 19* century, the
technology of paper engineering was well developed by the
early 20* century. Hans Oldewarris 8 is inclined to believe
that the rise of new and complex inventions in the late 19*
century was at least in part key to the popularity of these
overlay illustrations. Major subjects of the books with
overlays include transportation, engines, machinery,
electrical equipment, and all manner of anatomical subjects.
In the case of the engineering publications with which I am
familiar, most were serious works for students, engineers,
and technicians. From France the publications with overlays
are often in the format of an encyclopedia for reference, but
still highly technical with, for example, mathematical
analyses of the subjects illustrated. One French work, Mon
Professeur, with technical overlays in the collection is an
"encyclopedic autodidactique" that includes non-technical
subjects as well.
Numerous terms are used to describe overlay
illustrations. "Superimposed plates" is probably another
good English phrase to use. In German the more common
terms are "zerlegbare Modellen" and "Klappmodellen."
French terms include "planches superposables," and
"demontables." A Dutch bookseller 9 has proposed the
general term "clastic" from the Greek klastos, interpreted to
mean broken or separable into parts.
Publications with overlay illustrations from roughly the
first third of the 20* century can be found from web searches
of French and German booksellers. However, finding copies
in "collector's condition" is another matter. German
booksellers often have only the atlas volume of a set, the text
presumably having been discarded as out-of-date. Not
surprisingly, the fragile nature of the overlays means that
many will not be in perfect condition. One can imagine that
when the text volumes of a set were discarded the atlas
10
volume ended up in the hands of a child. French
publications seem to be the easiest to find complete and in
good condition. As the French publications are mostly by
one publisher who seems to have often recycled the same
illustrations under different titles or slightly reorganized
texts, there is no compelling reason to aim for
completeness with French publications. Publications with
overlays from England are significantly more scarce than
those published in Germany and France.
As most of the publications with overlays are multi-
volume sets in large format, determining the condition is
important before paying the substantial shipping charges
if one is purchasing from Europe. And as a return is
likewise expensive, I have tended to err on the side of not
buying when in doubt about the condition. Because of the
difficulty to find complete and substantially different sets
in good condition, my collection - but not from want of
trying - is not large: only ten publications in 3 1 total
volumes. It includes representative examples published in
England, France, and Germany during the first three
decades of the 20* century. For the long term, a collection
of books from the early 20 th century with movable color
illustrations is probably a good one to continue - if the
books can be found.
This article was first published in the Delaware
Bibliophiles Endpapers, September 2002, and is reprinted
with permission.
1 . Gay Walker, Eccentric Books, Yale University Library,
Arts of the Book department, January 1988, 62 pages;
includes a very good reference bibliography as well as a
checklist of the exhibition; what is called lift-up overlay in
this article is in the category "flap" along with other types
of flap movables such as metamorphoses; on the latter, see
Harry B. Weiss, "Metamorphoses and Harlequinades,"
The American Book Collector, vol. 2, Aug./Sept. 1932,
pp. 100-1 12 plus six unnumbered leaves of illustrations.
2. Edwina Evers, "A Historical Survey of Movable
Books," AB Bookman 's Weekly, August 19-26, 1985, pp.
1204-1210.
3. Peter Haining, Movable Books, London, 1979, New
English Library.
4. n.a., Livres Animes 15e-20e Steele, Rouen, 1982,
Bibliotheque Municipale de Rouen; 79-page exhibition
catalog.
5. The Movable Book Society, P. O. Box 1 1654, New
Brunswick, NJ 08906 and
//www.rci. rutgers.edu/~montanar/mbs. html; founder Ann
R Montanaro's bibliography Pop-up and Movable Books:
A Bibliography is published by Scarecrow Press.
6. E.g., Mark Hiner, Paper Engineering for Pop-up Books
and Cards, Norfolk, 1 985, Tarquin Publications; describes
ten basic mechanical actions and how to assemble the
appropriate structures.
7. Phillida Gili, "Pop-ups, Peepshows & Paper
Engineering," The Private Library s. 5, vol. 4, no. 1 , Spring
2001, pp. 11-33.
8. Superimposed Plates, wire-loop-bound diary-calendar for
1997 with essay and bibliography by Hans Oldewarris,
Rotterdam, 1 996, 1 Publ ishers, 62 pages of (non-movable)
color illustrations interleaved with weekly calendar leaves.
9. Start at //www.xs4all.nl/~artmed/, web site of L' Art
Medical, a Dutch bookseller.
10. Sten G. Lindberg, "Mobiles in Books," The Private
Library s. 3, vol. 2, no. 2, Summer 1979, pp. 49-81;
illustrates a few examples.
"Drehen - Klappen - Ziehen"
Bietigbeim-Bissingen
By Theo Gielen
The Netherlands
Next year's major European event in the field of
movable and pop-up books will surely be the exhibition
"Drehen - Klappen - Ziehen" (Turning wheels - Lifting
flaps - Pulling tabs) now being prepared in Bietigheim-
Bissingen, a small historic town about 15 miles north of
Stuttgart, Germany. The movable, pop-up and novelty books
from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Hase from Stuttgart will
be shown in Hornmoldhaus, the local museum, starting on
February 23, 2003.
Working together, the museum's director Mrs. Regina
Ille-Kopp and Mrs. Inge Hase have produced two
remarkable exhibitions of historic children's books from the
Hase collection, the latest one in 2000-2001 being
"Christmas Time in Picturebooks." Now there will be shown
for the first time the movable treasures of what appears to be
Europe's richest private collection.
Having seen the list of books intended for display I can
give you a glimpse of what can be expected. There are about
200 copies of antiquarian books (no reprints will be shown),
all in very good or better condition, ranging from the very
beginnings of children's movable and novelty books in the
early 1800s until about 1950. The greater part consists of
rare German items but some originate from other European
countries.
A collection of some ten "Gliickwunschkarten" from the
Regency period (between 1800 and 1830) with all kinds of
movable techniques as used in the 1 860s for movable books,
reveal aspects of the earliest history of movables very rarely
found. The time before 1860 will be illustrated by a French
paper doll book, an early peepshow, some interesting books
with pictures that have to be inserted to be complete (one by
the Austrian author Chimani), very early children's
11
leporellos, changing pictures and other paper toys.
The beginnings of movable books in Germany in the
1860s are well represented by books like Einhundert
Bilder / A hundred pictures / Cent Tableaux ( 1 866),
Kinder Lust in lebendigen Bildern (1863) and an early
Robinson Crusoe (1869) that is an adaptation of an early
Dean book, and more others.
The golden age of Meggendorfer and Nister will be
shown with the highlights of the many copies that are in
the collection. Meggendorfer alone will be included with
some 30 titles and from Mister's production will be shown
not only the better-known English versions but also the
rarely seen German editions of his books published by
Theo Stroefer's Kunstverlag in Nuremberg, later Munich.
There will be original editions of the fold-outs Die Krippe,
Grosse Menagerie, Theater Bilderbuch, Zoologischer
Garten and Allerneuestes Theaterbilderbuch that most of
us will only know from their 1980s reprints. Also included
are more than 20 movable books that were part of the first
Golden Age in the 1880s and 1890s.
To dispel the
usual theory that
there weren't any
interesting books
in the period after
the First World
War until the
coming of
Kubasta at the end
of the 1950s, the
exhibit will have
wonderful
examples from the
1920s and 1930s.
The works include
works by Else
Wenz Vietor
whose very rare
first edition of the
Niirnberger
Puppenstubenspielbuch illustrated in a great Jugendstil
style will be shown along a second edition that was
illustrated in a completely different style, and also in a
leporello version. Hilde Langen is represented by several
of her anthroposophic movable books and there are books
illustrated by Gerta Ries, Josef Mauder, Gertrud Kopp-
Romhild and Tom Seidmann-Freud. Two out of a series of
three earliest published carousel books from 1940 will be
part of the exhibition as will be a good selection of the
earliest books with "fanfolded" pop-ups, the series
published as Schreibers Stehaufbilderbucher from 1936
onwards - before the Jolly Jump-ups copied this simple,
cheap but effective technique.
mm
Postcard of the
Stadtmuseum Hornmoldhaus
As they typically do with all exhibitions in the
Hornmoldhaus, the staff has compiled an extensive program
of accompanying activities. These range from a series of
(very) short guided tours on Saturday morning when there
is a market on the square before the museum. They will
instruct one special category of movable books, through
instructive guided tours by Mrs. Inge Hase who will show
some books in action and other pages and techniques from
the books. There will also be a two-day paper engineering
workshop in cooperation with the local Art School of Youth.
Mrs. Hildegard Krahe will lecture, the German paper
engineer Antje von Stemm will take part, and Mrs. Carola
Pohlmann from State Library in Berlin will give a slide talk
on the development of movable books through history and
some aspects of their restoration. And there will be all kinds
of educational and recreational activities for children and
special gatherings for instruction of the teachers.
Even though you might think you are an expert in the
subject, I am sure you will be surprised to see so many
historical movable and novelty books in Bietigheim-
Bissingen that you didn't before know existed. Plan to visit
from February 23 until September 7 when the exhibition will
be closed with a mysterious gathering about "Movable and
novelty books in a musical way." The full address of the
museum is:
Stadtmuseum Hornmoldhaus
Hauptstrasse 57
74321 Bietigheim-Bissingen
Germany.
The museum is open everyday except Mondays and the
entrance is free. For more detailed information on the
program see the website of the museum through the website
of the city: www.bietigheim-bissingen.de or contact the
museum director Mrs. Regina lile-Kopp by e-mail at r.ille-
kopp@bietigheim-bissingen.de. There is a plan to organize
a special meeting of specialists and collectors of movable
and pop-up books.
MBS Grows Up, continued from page 2
A self-proclaimed ""popupaholic" but an architect by
training, Linda relishes having given up teaching such
topics as, "Earthquake Design in Hi-Rise Buildings." 'Top-
ups are more fun!" she declared. Linda was snagged into
doing pop-ups by a friend who had overbought "pinch
dolls," those 3" costumed plastic dolls with arms that
separate when pressed on the shoulders, then grasp an object
when released. Her friend wanted to bring something special
to a nephew in the hospital and enlisted Linda's help, thus
giving rise to the Pea-Pod gang. Today, Linda has 14 books
to her credit. While going for the "Yikes!" not the "Wow!"
effect, Linda certainly wowed the group with some of her
12
Andy Baron
oversized pop-ups, especially the rabbit in the tall grass
(Big Hair/Big Hare?).
Andrew Baron, still the
"Wunderkind," began his
talk by holding up the
world's largest pop-up
uterus. Men-o-pop, one of
Andy's two recently
engineered books, had been
a "difficult birth." It is
already in its second
printing. Andy continued
with an almost 40-minute video
on the making of Knick-
Knack Paddywhack, (KKP) as in "This Old Man Came
Rolling Home," with Paul Zelinsky. We were to literally
witness the nuts and bolts of the making of the most
complex movable book ever. (There are no pop-ups in
KKP.) Bound for the Hua Yang Printing Company, we
shared a seat with Andy as he experienced the teeming
streets of Shenzhen, China for the first time. What
followed was a step-by-step (Andy will never be accused
of not being detail-oriented!) view of how KKP was
printed, die-cut, and assembled. We looked over the
shoulders of every specialist as they refined each process
according to Paul or Andy's changes. Colors couldn't
bleed, the assembly line had to be organized, and every
spread needed to move smoothly. The book has 200
movable parts, 300 glue points - twice the usual number -
15 lift-the- flaps, and 10 parts on the last spread alone,
moving simultaneously with one tab! ! ! 500 people worked
on the book. We were tempted to wipe the sweat from
their brows. It was humbling to see so much effort just for
our pleasure and all for only $18.95.
Andy described the working conditions at Hua Yang,
anticipating a question he is most often asked in this post-
Kathy Lee Gifford/Nike era. He told us most workers are
women between 18 and 24 years of age who send enough
money home to be "set for life." The environment is clean
and safe; the factory houses and feeds them. Five tons of
rice are consumed each day! At the height of the season,
3,000 workers are employed. Each one is individually
trained for the task.
The net result for us movable book worshipers was to
be awed by the process. Never again will we cavalierly flip
through a book and dismiss it. Even those which don't
thrill us bear the hallmarks of this incredible effort. Our
newly found respect for this intensely detailed process is
much akin to having children of one's own and
understanding for the first time what goes into being a
parent. We saw "behind the curtain" and knew we weren't
in Oz. The term "magic" took on another quality, a more
mature one.
Since I never run out of "awe," I had plenty left for Paul
Zelinsky whose talk was scheduled after the lovely lunch and
book sale. Paul packs pounds of talent into his small frame.
A polished performer, he led us through the initial process
of coming up with KKP, from the original concept, (Itsy
Bitsy Spider was discarded for having only up and down
movements), to coming to my home to select the paper
engineer, Andrew Baron. (We also witnessed on the video
the first face-to-face meeting between Andy and Paul who
had worked on KKP for over a year via phone, fax, email,
and mail. They had actually grown to resemble each
other!!!) It had been ten years since the very successful
Wheels on the Bus, and Paul wanted to do another children's
song. While "thinking through the words" is the most
pleasurable part of the project, Paul also showed us pages
and pages of doodles so that we could watch a single old
man evolve into many different ones each with a "matching"
dog. Even the concept of "old" morphed into someone who
could be "historic." Talk about being a fly on the wall!!
As the project
advanced, Paul and Andy
used the latest technology
to communicate their
ideas. (The screen spun
with a plethora of pages
from his phone bill and
email account list.) Web
animation was most
helpful for Andy to show
Paul progress in the
movement of the artwork. Paul was seeking a "sense of
chaos and motion". (There is no other book which has so
much movement for one pull of the tab. I know, somewhere,
Meggendorfer is tipping his hat to Andy.) Most awesome for
me in the presentation was seeing the movables from the
back which had a very organic quality, like a "beating
heart," according to Paul.
We saw again the production process in China but from
Paul's point of view. Richard Burgess, Senior Marketing
Manager for Hua Yang, was ever in attendance. Having
immersed himself deeply in the production of KKP, Paul
found it "hard to let go of the project." His beautiful artwork
(he works in oils) was continued after the publishing of the
book by his making his own KKP tie - which he wore - and
designing the store display cases. Andy and Richard were
also unable to "let go" and could be seen throughout the
conference continually pulling on KKP tabs... a mobile
quality-control team.
Ever the stickler for detail, like the spinning wheel in
Rumplestiltskin, Paul had us focus on the carpet on the final
spread. It has eight (8!) different numbering systems,
Babylonian, Mayan, Chinese, Hebrew, Ethiopian, Arabic,
Roman, and Sri Lankan. Careful examination of ever)'
Paul Zelinsky
13
spread will yield many surprises. Andy pointed out, "The
more you look, the more you see."
After this thrilling talk, Paul and Andy signed books
appearing as the cohesive team they had become. That
other "Dynamic Duo," Robert Sabuda (The Night Before
Christmas) and Matthew Reinhart (Popposites), also
signed their collaborative The Young Naturalist
HandbookfsJ- Beetles and Butterflies.
Our final speaker, Collector Extraordinaire, Adie
Pefia, presented a feast for our eyes with pop-up
advertisements from his collection. This cornucopia of
colorful and sometimes surprising ephemera - Greek for
mayflies - whetted our appetites for the viewing of the
exhibition which was to follow upstairs at the Eisner.
Since Adie's collection is so vast - although he sadly told
us the Philippines, his home, turns out few pop-up
advertisements - Adie only showed us items given to him
as gifts, "drawer stuffers - not seriously collected." A
veritable Fagin, Adie even had his sister stealing a pop-up
menu from Denny's! (Having been with Adie in the
presence of possible "donors," I can bear witness to his
shameless begging and pleading.) Outstanding among the
items was a brochure from the Australian Tourism Board
which folded origami-style into a kangaroo.
Chuck Sable,
curator of the exhibit,
Pop Up Advertising,
told us he was
inspired by Brooklyn
Pops Up! to mount
this exhibition of
promotional pieces.
After giving a tour of
the building, a former
lighting factory
(cl892), we were let
loose in the second floor gallery to "Ooh!" and "Aah!" As
to be expected from those in the design business, the
Eisner had used their well-lit, open space to the pop-ups'
best advantage. The exhibit, which runs until February 2,
2003, was divided into categories, mostly represented by
the "Big Money" groups - cigarettes, alcohol, and
pharmaceuticals. Most of the 100 ads had appeared in
"high-end, glossy magazines." According to Sable, "[An]
ad is conceived as art and concerned about design
aesthetics." Some ads were over the top with interactive
components. Interactive elements were used on the walls
of the exhibit as well. We were
lucky to have with us Cliff Wood of Trimensions, Inc. and
Frank Ossman of Structural Graphics, two companies
which had produced many of the ads. Their presence
allowed us to get some background information and
congratulate them as well. Sadly, individual paper
Entrance to Pop Up
Advertising
engineers were rarely credited. Wally Hunt, of course, was
puffed with pride having been an originator of pop-up
advertising in the 1960s.
Ann again donned her virtual chauffeur's cap to take
many of the pooped-out conventioneers back to the hotel for
a brief respite. Still a "driving" force, she next delivered us
to Marder's Restaurant, for a taste of Heidelberg in
Milwaukee. As promised in our MBS promos (thanks,
Adie!), many got to taste a buffet of beers and Bavarian food.
Lucky were the "senior" members already on the statin drugs
for lowering cholesterol.
I hear it was sunny in Milwaukee on Saturday, and that
the streets were abuzz with the imminent arrival of Paul
McCartney who would appear that night at the Performing
Arts Center across the street. Many, like yours truly, never
got to step outside lest we miss the jam-packed schedule Roy
had planned. (Even he was apologizing for such a full
program. Doesn't he know we're not so young anymore and
can only retain so much?)
A ray of sunshine came into the
Wyndham Hotel in the form of
Dagmar Kubastova Vrkljan
(pronounced Virk -len), Vojtech
Kubasta's daughter. She had
graciously made the trip from
Canada with her husband, Nick. I
was overwhelmed at the gesture,
timed for my scheduled lecture
about her father later in the day. I
introduced her with pride to
whomever I was able, gleefully
watching members reach out to
literally touch the closest living
thing to our venerated icon.
Dagmar Kubastova
Vrkljan
More light poured from our first speaker of the day, the
handsome, and, yes, youthful, Matthew Reinhart. Matthew
mapped out his road to pop-ups. While always an artist, his
parents pushed for the more lucrative profession, medicine,
drawing on his interest in biology. Yet, he deferred his
acceptance to medical school and took a year off in New
York, sampling the "starving artist" life in SoHo. To make
ends meet, he held a job at the Eye Bank for Sight
Restoration where he removed eyeballs for transplantation.
(Readers-I don't make this stuff up!) Matthew learned he
didn't like hospitals or sick people. With his parents'
support, he entered Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York
and studied Industrial Design.
Always a toy collector, especially Star Wars and
transformation robots, Matthew focused on toy design.
14
Matthew Reinhart
After meeting Robert
Sabuda at Pratt, Robert
offered Matthew an
internship exposing
him to the world of
pop-ups. In 1998,
Matthew was
approached by Melcher
Media to engineer a
book, The Pop-up Book
of Phobias. Matthew
thought the concept "Sveird" and "not a good idea." (Well,
I did say he was "youthful.") While browsing at Maxilla
and Mandible, Ltd., a store selling animal bones and
carcasses near the Museum of Natural History, Robert and
Matthew found themselves fascinated by bugs framed
under glass. With Robert sharing his enthusiasm,
Matthew pitched the idea of a factual insect pop-up book
to Hyperion who liked the dummies for The Young
Naturalist Handbooks. (A flat book, Insect-lo-pedia, will
follow.)
The search for the most exciting insects (which
included a backstage visit to the Museum of Natural
History) yielded the Australian stag beetle which was both
"pretty" and had "big mandibles." Using Adobe
Illustrator, the artwork was scanned in to make die-lines,
making the various parts of the insects "look like
roadkill." The butterfly required blowing flocking onto
glue necessitating assemblers to wear face masks. The
beautiful insects, a beetle and a butterfly made with
iridescent foil housed in faux glass boxes, are the first
pop-ups which "do not have to fold flat." For future
projects, like Noah 's Ark, Matthew plans to "focus on the
fun stuff, not just the academic." Ah, those "younguns!!"
Almost without taking a breath, Roy ushered in Joanne
Page, a conference regular, to provide information on
repairing books and to answer questions on attendees' fix-
it needs. She recommended Japanese paper with strong,
long fibers for tears and using wheat starch or white glue
(archival, of course). Bent pull-tabs could be reinforced
with 2-ply Bristol paper or cardstock. She cautioned NOT
to use pressure-sensitive tape ("don't use any material
which can't be reversed") and described the use of acetone
to remove the residue from such tape. A sheet of suggested
vendors (see websites below) for archival repair supplies
was provided as well.
Again, with his now familiar scheduling "shoehorn,"
Roy introduced Emily Martin, an Iowan book artist who
produces work from her Naughty Dog Press. Emily's
initial artistic interest was in sculpture but found the work
"dangerous and heavy." She moved on to paper sculptures,
clay work, and intaglio (etching). Finally, she settled on
books as an alternative to sculpture producing her first
Pam Pease
pop-up, In One Ear, written with her sister and mother. Her
Vicious Circle Series made use of the flexagon form. But it
is the Iowa Series or "How a Tornado Spawned Five Books"
(see Movable Stationery. Nov. 200 U, which to-date is her
magnum opus, a five-volume set originating from her Iowan
experience with tornadoes and her need to justify to
outsiders living in the state. The books take several formats,
including a carousel, tunnel book, flexagon, and panorama.
Development of her book, Sleepers, Dreamers, and
Screamers, was halted by the events of September 1 1 . In the
spirit of "You Had To Be There," I am unable to give you
the flavor of Emily's wit, one which comes through
raucously in her books.
The last time we saw
Pam Pease she had just
self-published The Garden
Is Open. I declared her my
idol. With the completion
of her latest project, I
raised the pedestal. While
watching the Macy's Day
Parade in 2000, Pam
realized that the following
year was to be the Parade's
75 th anniversary. "What a great idea for a pop-up book!"
Pam thought. Pam called me and I enthusiastically agreed.
She hoped to have the book ready by the that November.
"Lotsa' luck!" I said. (She had asked me to candid, after all.)
Pam ploughed in and prepared a dummy for Macy's, who
loved the idea. (She reasoned, "These were people who put
on parades for a living.") But Macy's only agreed to loan
their name and then set her adrift. Never rudderless, Pam
got to work and secured the most difficult items of all,
permission to use each of the various names, e.g. Big Bird,
Snoopy, and the Rockettes. She met the worst resistance
with the Rockettes who complained, "the legs look too fat."
Unable to find publishing support, Pam did it the old-
fashioned way and dug into the pockets of family and friends
procuring 50 investors. Andy Baron helped with paper
engineering problems.
Pam found a printer/hand assembler in China and her
book was launched. Besides the trade book, there is a limited
edition of 300 with an extra pop-up. We were shown the
beautifully foil-enhanced book with the Rockettes' signature
"kick-line, high-steppin" with just the pull of two tabs.
Besides a book signing at Macy's, the piece de resistance
will be Pam's performance in the Parade as a clown!!
Caught this day between her daughter's 18 th birthday and
her father's 90 th , Pam, breathless, had time to tell us of two
more projects already in the planning, a pop-up book of
Radio City Music Hall at Christmas time and another of the
Wright Brothers' solo flight. My idol, indeed!
15
Lunch looked beautiful but I had "bigger fish to fry,"
namely getting ready for my talk on Vojtech Kubasta
which I began by explaining how lucky I was when it
came to pop-ups. For example, Dagmar, in Canada, had
caught my segment on The Martha Stewart Show and
found me. Eager to revitalize her father's legacy, Dagmar
extended herself for interviews by phone and fax. She also
loaned photographs of some of her Dad's work which I
incorporated into the presentation. Drawing upon items
from my Kubasta collection, I sought to give an
understanding of Kubasta, the man, and biographical
information for which we were all starved. Kubasta was
born in Vienna on October 7, 1914, grew up in Prague,
and graduated from the Polytech Institute of Prague in
1931.
Embarking on an architectural career, Kubasta would
design a hotel and, later, a vacation home for his family,
creating art works and furnishings as well. His tenure as
a professor at the School of Graphic Design was ended by
the Nazi's march into Prague in 1 94 1 . He then worked as
a designer of household plastic goods also creating sales
brochures and promotional material, several of which
were shown. At this same time, he started working for
Aventinum Publishing in Prague. With different
historians, he did a series of five limited edition folios I
believe to be the harbingers of the "Panascopic" series
begun in the late 1950s. The folios consisted of stiff
cardboard folders, about 1 1" by 17", with linen bindings.
Inside was a separate 3-5 page booklet of text with an
elaborate vignette on the cover and a smaller vignette on
the colophon. Hand-colored chromolithographs of
architectural features of Prague would be included. The
first folio, in 1943, of the Loretta Monastery was a
relatively straightforward depiction of buildings of the
Prague site. The last folio in 1945 of the Klementinum, a
16" 1 century Jesuit college with an astronomical
observatory, already showed some of Kubasta's brightly
colored and whimsical artistic hallmarks. (Kubasta did
another folio in 1954 commemorating Mozart's visit to
Prague in 1754. Kubasta was a life-long Mozart devotee.)
The first dimensional piece in the collection was an
undated pop-up souvenir card from the early 1950s.
(Around this same time, he was doing set design and
costumes for a puppet theater and producing souvenir
items for Slovtour Publishing.) Until then, Kubasta had
illustrated many children's flat books.
My talk was called, "The Prolific Artistry of Vojtech
Kubasta," and I shared my incredulity at the number of
illustrations he created from the late 1950s through the
1960s - literally thousands of them. One Kubasta
contemporary commented, "Kubasta was born with a
pencil in his hand," which could be seen in a 1984 photo
of him working in his home studio. It wasn't until 1953
that he offered to Artia, a Prague publishing house, a crude
working dummy of a pop-up book which was well received.
It was also at Artia that Kubasta saw the Blue Ribbon
Mickey and Minnie Mouse pop-up books. Those of us who
had believed it was the Jolly Jump-up series which may have
inspired Kubasta's love-affair with pop-ups now had the real
"scoop." Kubasta went on to produce for Artia over 200
titles, with 10 million copies in 37 languages! His concertina
design showed great economy of paper while his technical
ingenuity maximized the dynamics of the movables.
Dagmar had told me that there was a collector's group in
Prague which coveted the 12 - 15 Christmas
centerpiece/advent calendars her father had designed. Two
are a part of the "Panascopic" series. One untitled piece, I
call Silent Night, is a triptych with the pop-up signed by
Kubasta and the 2 "wing" pieces drawn by others in
Kubasta's style. There are plans in the works to have these
holiday pieces reprinted in Prague. Other Kubasta books
may be reproduced as well.
Kubasta saw himself as an Eastern European Disney,
imaginative, entrepreneurial, and inexhaustible in his ideas.
There is no question his reach was restricted by the Nazis
during WWII, and, after, by the Communists. He did have
the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream to work for Disney,
engineering 5 books, including 101 Dalmatians which
featured his own artwork in the Disney style.
Another question answered was the derivation of the Tip
+ Top + Tap series. Dagmar affirmed that they were her
father's idea. He had wanted to imagine characters which
were not mythical or classical but to whose antics children
could directly relate. The names, he reasoned, would need no
translation. Vojtech Kubasta died in Prague on July 7, 1992
having left a legacy of highly cherished pop-up and
illustrated books. I could have gone on another hour but we
had more fun things to do.
With a break only long
enough for materials to be
assembled, we moved into
the "audience
participation" portion of
the program. Whether
giddy with fatigue (this was
some full day!) or just
looking to let one's hair
down, tunnel book-making
with Ed Hutch ins and
paper engineering with
Robert Sabuda was riotous,
Ed Hutchins if not bawdy good ^
Ed gave us the
abbreviated version of the history of tunnel books (see his
treatise, "Exploring Tunnel Books," Artists ' Books Reviews,
16
vol. 6, Winter 2002) and passed under our noses the
wonderful books he would have at the Swap/Sale to
follow. The allure of tunnel books, he said, was that the
"Yeader enters inside unaware of what's around."
Ed is the consummate teacher- patient, prepared, and
precise. He led us merrily down a golden path or, should
I say, tunnel, to making our own versions of this versatile
format. But some unnamed individuals, whose egos
crumbled under the weight of being perfect or having
"mature" expectations, were not so merry. What could be
heard, at my table at least, was, "Is this right?" "I'm doing
this wrong." "Do you like this?" "Oh, no! I'm left-
brained!" Dagmar Kubastova was having her own
problems manipulating the scissors and glue, but then, she
had her father's reputation to live up to.
It was the table at the door, however, which caused the
most ruckus. I think I even saw Ed blush a few times after
being called over to view their work. I never got to see
their ""products" but Ed called it the "smut" table. I should
talk! My runnel book was entitled, "Perversion." Let's just
say, "We let it all hang out!"
Robert (with Matthew mirroring him at the other end)
followed Ed with a well-oiled presentation. Robert had us
"creasing and wiggling" our 1 10 lb. cardstock making v-
folds and layer folds turning us into comfortable pros
inside of 1 5 minutes. He supportively cooed, "Wiggling is
good." The "needy ego" at my table triumphantly
declared, "I made it myself!"
Continuing the frenetic pace, Roy announced the
Sale/Swap/Book Signing and with little fanfare and much
chaos, gluesticks, scissors, and paper were cleared. The
tables were now set with old pop-up books from dealers
and fellow conventioneers. Ed Hutchins and Emily Martin
had their own Artists' Book Table which seemed to be
doing a brisk business. Cliff Wood declared himself a
"convert" and bought his first Kubasta. There were rumors
of transactions having gone on privately in rooms in
previous days, and hints of the "pajama party swap" to be
held that night. Robert and Matthew anchored the only
calm corner, fluidly signing their books.
With barely enough time to relax (yeah, right!) and
dress, the final chapter of our Conference opened with
another crowded agenda. Our meal was delicious and
topped off with a celebration of youth, Matthew Reinhart's
birthday. Putting on her chefs hat, Ann sliced us all
generous portions of cake. She then took the podium and
thanked, among others, Roy Dicks, who accepted pajama
bottoms as a gift. (The pajama-book swap was his idea. I
swear! ) When the laughter died down, Ann introduced our
keynote speaker, Richard Burgess of Hua Yang.
Boyish and blond, Richard held up one of the DK Snap
Richard Burgess
Shot series which were on the banquet tables as gifts for the
conferees. The series had been the first pop-up books he
worked on at Excel. (At our table, I could see him
registering the passage of time and wistfully assessing how
far he has come in this field.) Richard began by outlining
how he found himself making a life in pop-up books. With
a degree in aeronautical engineering, his youthful
restlessness took him to China to visit a classmate and
resulted in his replacing his friend at Excel, a hand-assembly
plant.
After 2 years at
Excel, he spent 2 years
at White Heat doing
quality control in Hong
Kong, and then moved
on to Hua Yang where
he's been for the past 4
years. At Excel he
remembers asking,
"What is a pop-up
collector?" that
experience being his first with pop-ups, a "baptism" of sorts.
Richard gave us a brief history of Hau Yang, which
started in Shanghai (under another name) in 1935 directed
by Chung Ming Chan. It was moved to Hong Kong in 1949
to escape Communism. In 1987, a factory was opened in
China and simple pop-ups were made. Hua Yang was
bought by Zindart in 1998, a printer and manufacturer of
hand-made books, specialty packaging, and other paper
products.
In its half million sq. ft. factory, Hua Yang nurtures its
workers providing health care, minimum wage standards,
training, and meals. Its planning department maps out each
project in an attempt to avoid problems. We had seen
evidence of this in Andy's video where each spread had its
own "production book" encompassing everything from the
hand-made dies to the order in which movables are
assembled. The quality of the paper is tested, and the final
books are individually dehumidified before being shrink-
wrapped.
Richard commented on the many changes which have
taken place in the pop-up book manufacturing world, among
them are the consolidation of publishers, the decrease in the
number of packagers - some have begun self-publishing -
and the greater independence of paper engineers. Not
wanting to venture into "Tomorrowland," Richard did say he
sees the need for more innovation in projects.
As we tried to digest both our dinners and Richard's
large output of information, Roy, forever stirring the pot,
moved us onto our first-ever auction. Andy Baron,
understanding the heart of a collector, contributed one of the
140 salesman copies of Knick-Knack Paddywhack, certainly
17
a treasure for anyone's collection. Roy, now an auctioneer
- and a most able one I might add - brought the gavel
down after brisk competition at $160, sold to Intervisual
for its pop-up museum. The proceeds from the auction will
go to offset the cost of the conference. Wouldn't this be a
great way in the future to help defray conference costs and
whet collectors' appetites to spend money? Publishers,
packagers, and paper engineers take note: Donate!
Wally Hunt stood up to salute the group, offering his
optimistic view for the future of pop-ups including the
Frankfurt Book Fair which should have many new titles.
He graciously invited all of us to the Los Angeles Central
Public Library's exhibit of pop-ups from his collection.
The exhibition will run until mid- January.
At last, we came to the denouement of the evening, the
presentation of the 3rd Meggendorfer Prize. Fulfilling my
assignment as the
presenter, I announced
the prize "Miss
America-style,"
reading the names of
the runners-up first.
The second runner-up
was MBS's very own,
Brooklyn Pops Up, and
the first runner-up, the
most unusually
formatted book in the
group, Roly Poly
Nursery Rhymes by
Kees Moerbeek. And
the winner is. . . Robert Sabuda's The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz. Robert shyly came to the podium to accept yet another
well-deserved prize. There was no acceptance speech. Like
bobblehead dolls, we all sat silently nodding in agreement.
The Conference disbanded with a clear affirmation of
who we are. Our Society is "on the map," no longer a
fledgling. As a group we had acquired a new and more
mature appreciation of our beloved pop-up books,
especially the talent, patience, tenacity, and man-power it
takes to bring them to fruition. These new insights,
garnered from the exhibit, in-depth lectures, and videos,
and personal interactions as well, put a patina on who we
are as collectors, artists, and business people who "live" in
the world of pop-up books and ephemera. Time has served
us well. Plans are already underway for the next
conference, which will surely be an eventful milestone.
Conference-related websites:
1. Photos from the conference: www.popuplady.com
2. Photos from the Eisner: www.robertsabuda.com
3. Repair suggestions from Joanne Page:
Ellen Rubin presenting
the Meggendorfer Prize
to Robert Sabuda
Archival inks for inkjet printers:
http://www.inksupply.com/
4. University of Iowa Paper Facility
http://www.uiowa.edu/~ctrbook/bookarts/paperbrochure.ht
ml
5. Emily Martin: www.emilymartin.com
6. Pam Pease: www.paintboxpress.com
7. Ed Hutchins: www.artistbooks.com/
8. Hua Yang: www.zindart.com
9. Men-O-Pop (Fill 'er Up Productions):
www.menopop.com
10. Knick-Knack Paddywhack, www.martoons.com/poz or
www.paulzelinsky.com
The photographs used in this article were taken by Burt
Thompson and Robert Sabuda.
Hildegard Krahe, continued from page 1
Sitting in the shady little garden of her apartment with a
wonderful view of a snow-covered mountain and disturbed
only once an hour by a tooting train crowded with tourists,
the smart, tall lady told me the story of her life, regularly
going to get another book, notes, photocopies of some
important old movables or just another glass of some
refreshing drink. Was this an 80-year old woman? Her body
may be, but her spirit is much younger and the glimpse in
her eyes often gave away the little girl that is still in her
soul.
Born in Berlin in 1922
she attended high school in
the 1930s when the Nazis
came to power in
Germany. She graduated
as a librarian in 1943.
Since she had no sympathy
for the Nazi ideology, and
made no secret of it, she
thought that she would be
without work. But her
sincerity was observed and
she got a job in a small
Berlin office. Though it
struck her that there were
some retired people living in the building that housed the
office, it was only decades later that she learned these people
went into hiding there for the length of the war.
After the war, in 1945, she got a job as a librarian in
Berlin-Spandau where she worked for the next ten years. In
the late 1940s she met Mrs. Jella Lepman who in 1948
founded the International Youth Library Munich to
stimulate "international understanding through children's
JF^^Sw
"
■ . 1
> ]
Hildegard Krahe
18
books" and directed Hildegard's attention to children's
books.
In 1954 she married Peter Krahe and though she had
thought since her girlhood that she would have six boys,
the marriage, unfortunately, was childless. Two years later
they moved to Hamburg where she got a staff position at
the children and youth book department of the Hamburger
Offentlichen Bucherhallen, the city's public library. In
1958 she organized a large educational exhibition of
international children's books that brought her in contact
with several German and foreign writers, illustrators,
scientists and publishing houses.
She left that job in 1963 to work as a freelance writer,
translator, teacher, reviewer, member of the jury of several
(international) children's book prizes, and scientist (theory
of children's literature). Her reviews in the journal Die
Welt and her articles on children's books in Die
Frankfurter Algemeine drew the attention of the
prestigious magazine Die Zeit and in 1 967 she was asked
to do an interview with the then raising star and author of
picture books Maurice Sendak. For the first time she went
to the USA, the start of what proved to be a lifelong love
for American children's books and of a series of long and
short stays there in the next 20 years. The meeting with
Mr. Sendak turned in a close friendship as shown by the
many copies of Sendak's books with personal inscriptions
and special drawings on her shelves. In 1969 her highly
acclaimed German translation of Sendak's Higglety
Pigglety Pop! was published, still her favorite children's
book.
Movable Books
Mr. Sendak, himself an avid collector, showed Mrs.
Krahe some of his movable books and asked her for
information about
them and asked her to
look in German
antiquarian
bookshops for copies
of movables,
especially those by
Lothar Meggendorfer
- a man, she said, she
had never heard of
This was the start of
her interest in
movable books and by
good fortune she had
the opportunity to see
and study a whole
range of old movables in the famous collection of the
Hamburg collector Ludwig Hirschberg. The movable
books by Meggendorfer especially fascinated her and
elicited in her a desire to study them. Since the archives of
his main publisher Braun & Schneider from Munich had
been bombed in the war, and since she would not limit
herself to just bibliographical dates, Meggendorfer became
her travel guide for years taking her through the German
libraries and museums of Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt and
Braunschweig to see as many copies as possible.
When Mr. Hirschberg asked for her assistance in the
preparation of the exhibition of "Movable Books from the
Hirschberg Collection," held in 1974 in the Hamburger
Kunsthaus, she profited from Mr. Hirschberg's extensive
knowledge and she also got permission to take pictures and
slides of his treasures. The result of these studies in the field
were published this year as Spielbilderbucher. Ein
Kaleidoskop Verwandelbarer und Beweglicher
Kinderbilderbilcher (Picture books to play with. A
kaleidoscope of changeable and movable picture books for
children). 1 Also in 1974 she was asked to do a
talk- with-sl ides presentation: "Toy-Books. The Tradition of
Book Curiosities During Three Centuries" at the
international Loughborough Conference held in Bremen. 2
An enlarged and augmented German version of it, with
illustrations, was published in 1980 as Das Buch als
Spielzeug. Riickblick auf 300 Jahre Wandlungen der
Verwandlungsillustration (The Book as a Toy. A
Retrospective View of 300 Years of Changes of the
Changeable Illustration). 3
However, the year before she had a Meggendorfer
experience that would chance the rest of her studying life
and result in her name being associated with the maestro
forever. Back in New York consulting on one of her
translations, she had lunch with the Macmillan
vice-president Susan Hirschman. When Mrs. Hirschman
asked of her writing plans, Mrs. Krahe hesitatingly dropped
the name of Meggendorfer. Though she thought nobody
knew that name, Mrs. Hirschman immediately said: "Make
haste or stop eating" and made, at the same time, an
appointment with the neighboring antiquarian bookseller
Justin Schiller. Mr. Schiller took her - five hours before her
flight back to Hamburg - to the safe-deposit of his bank
where he spread out the treasures of the Meggendorfer
originals. Mr. Schiller using his professional knowledge,
had bought them only a short time before (the antiquarians
hardly noticed ) at a Stuttgart auction where they had been
brought in by the publishing house of J.F. Schreiber from
Esslingen near Stuttgart when they cleared their archives.
The Meggendofer monograph and bibliography
When she was asked in 1975 to be part of the jury of the
children's book illustration prize of the Czechoslovakian
Biennale Bratislava (BIB) she happened to meet another
Meggendorfer enthusiast in the person of the jury's president
Prof. Dr. Horst Kunze from the German State Library in
19
Berlin/GDR. At the next meeting of the jury he brought an
invitation for her to prepare a Meggendorfer bibliography
for the respected Pirckheimer Gesellschaft in which Prof.
Kunze had a leading position. She did so and the first
edition of her Meggendorfer-Bibliographie was published
in the magazine of the Society. 4 In the meantime Mr.
Justin Schiller had to abandon his attempt to save the
Meggendorfer archives as a unity - an aspiration for which
he had even founded a special Meggendorfer Association.
In the hope the city of Munich would be interested to buy
the archives of its important artist-citizen, he arranged an
exhibition in the Munich Puppentheatermuseum from
December 1980 through February 1981. The
accompanying publication Lothar Meggendorfers Lebende
Bilderbucher (L.M.'s Living Picturebooks) contains very
interesting articles on the production and reception history
of the movables as published by Schreiber (including the
earnings Meggendorfer received from his movable books)
and a reprinted article from a 1902 magazine on the
success of his books. Mrs. Krahe prepared the German
translation ofMaurice Sendak's Lothar Meggendorfer: An
Appreciation and contributed a short biography of
Meggendorfer and a second version of her
Meggendorfer-Bibliographie (p 49-86). 5
Though the exhibition was very successful, the officials
of the city did not choose to buy the collection. One of the
visitors, however, the publisher Heinrich Hugendubel,
exclaimed when he saw the wonderful collection: "Why
don't we make a book out of it?" The museum director Dr.
Wolfgang Till answered: "And I know already its author!"
In this way Mrs. Krahe received the honor of writing the
monograph. It took her a lot of additional research
because until then she had been interested only in
Meggendorfer's picture books and now she had to also
study the rest of his artistic and editorial (the magazine
Die Meggendorfer Blatter) activities. The lay-out of the
book and the
reproduction of the
pictures, often from
poor copies, took
time as well. An
additional problem
was the auction of
the Meggendorfer
Archive at Sotheby's
in June 1982 but the
auction house helped
her by providing
copies of pictures
they made for their
catalog. The book
was published in
1983 at Hugendubel as Lothar Meggendorfers Spielwelt
(The Playing World of L.M.), with a preface of Dr.
Wolfgang Till. Again Mrs. Krahe gave a completely
I nili.ii Meggendorfers
SPJELWELT
ink
revised edition of her Meggendorfer bibliography on pages
187-193 of this well researched and beautifully illustrated
book. It has been the standard reference work on the subject
for almost 20 years, referred to by researchers, auctioneers,
and antiquarian booksellers. It also made her the ultimate
Meggendorfer specialist all over the world. 6 For this specific
book and for all her other work on children's books she was
honored in 1984 when the Deutsche Akademie fur Kinder-
und Jugendliteratur in Volkach am Main awarded her that
year's "Volkacher Taier."
The publication of the book brought a lot of other
reactions and new acquaintances. A very charming one was
a letter from an old lady in a Munich old people's residence
who turned out to be the daughter of the Munich art
publisher Wilhelm Loos for whom Meggendorfer designed
a series of now very rare movable cards. They had comic
effects mostly achieved by (up to four) turning wheels. When
Mrs. Krahe visited the lady she was shown a box from under
her bed that contained a whole bunch of partly unpublished,
original Meggendorfer designs for postcards with Munich-
related themes, known as "Munchener Kindl." This specific
theme has since grown into an additional collecting and
research area for her.
Since the phenomenon of the Meggendorfer reprints
started at the end of the 1970s, she has written compact but
very informative afterwords for most of the German editions
published by J.F. Schreiber. She has also used these texts to
give new information found after the publication of her
monograph, to correct inaccurate attribution of movable
books to Meggendorfer and to reveal the real illustrator of
the books. Several times she has organized exhibitions of the
works of Meggendorfer and/or other movable books. Her last
one was in 1997 to commemorate the 150th birthday of
Meggendorfer, in Traunstein in Bavaria where she was then
living. She and Peter went there for holidays years before
they moved to Traunstein after Peter's retirement. Again she
wrote an accompanying publication: Bayernnah und
weltbekannt Lothar Meggendorfer zum 150. Geburtstag
(Familiar to Bavaria and world known). 7
Though very seldom found, she is not pleased by a "Not
in Krahe" used in auction or antiquarian bookseller's
catalogs. As a result, she has listed and researched all of
them (mostly varieties of known books or obscure foreign
editions) in preparation for a further revised and enlarged
(fourth) edition of her bibliography that, as she showed me,
is now complete but not yet published. The question is if the
bibliography ever will be "completed." Mrs. Krahe says:
"This Lothar brings me always new surprises" Even after 35
years of research? Two of the biggest surprises he brought
her since the book was published in 1983 she describes in
the catalog that was published with the exhibition of her
collection in Salzburg.
20
Nister and the others
Of course her research is not restricted to
Meggendorfer. That other icon of movable books in the
first golden age of movable books, Ernest Nister, received
her attention too. Again, she was the first one to write an
extensive study about him, as she had done on
Meggendorfer. In 1988 she published her study about the
publishing activities of Nister in England, the U.S. and
Germany: "The Importance of Being Ernest Nister." This
article gives a lot of information until then previously
unknown. It included biographical information, a
preliminary lists of Nister's movable books, a preliminary
checklist of artists and the works they illustrated for
Nister, and a list of authors and editors with their works
as well as anonymous titles published by Nister. She still
regrets that, unfortunately, her study got a very poor
translation. But until now it is the only substantial
publication on the works of this important publisher who
gave the movable book its fame in the 1 9th century. 8
Since I know she also has a huge and detailed
knowledge of the history of movable books in Germany
and Austria since their very beginnings in the early 19th
century, I asked her why she has never written that
history. She answered with a counter question: "Why
describe the flat land once one has seen the top of the
mountain that Meggendorfer was?" Besides, she fears
there hasn't been a publisher that would publish such a
book. We regret this, for when will there be another
researcher who will have as much systematic knowledge
of movable books and will have seen as many of them as
ffildegard Krahe? For now we will have the informative
concise histories of the movable books she has given
within her publications.
The collection exhibited
Since Mrs. Krahe has now reached 80 years of age, she
debated in her mind how to leave her collection of
movable books. Having considered other places such as
the the Picture Museum Troisdorf the International Youth
Library Munich, and the Museum im Heimathaus in
Traunstein, she finally decided on the Toy Museum in
Salzburg. A decisive reason for her choice was the fact
that Salzburg is near where she lives and is easy for her to
reach by bus; so the collection stayed in her proximity and
available for her research. She told me to be happy with
her choice of Salzburg. The curator of the museum, Dr.
Peter Laub, proved not only to be a nice person, but also
very enthusiastic. Once he had seen the collection, he
decided to make it the museum's major exhibition of the
summer, from June to October, 2002 - the whole tourist
season. The museum's gratitude for the gift of the Krahe
collection, which made the museum at once a leading
center of movable and novelty books, has been expressed by
the making of a wonderfully illustrated and well-documented
catalog of the whole collection.
When I visited the exhibition in Salzburg, I met Peter
Laub and found him to be a cordial man who has become
enthusiastic about movable books through his contacts with
Hildegard Krahe. The Toy Museum, housed in an historic
building with an Italian air is partly built within a rocky
mountain in the monumental old city of Salzburg. The
museum changed several spacious rooms of the second floor
into a feast of colorful three-dimensional paper artwork. The
chain of tens of showcases built in the walls and newly
painted with anthracite backgrounds to give the colors
warmth, and the freestanding showcases allowing visitors to
see the books from several sides, offered a good survey of the
variety of movable, pop-up and novelty books in the
collection. And though there were some 200 books on
display, the whole didn't overwhelm - on the contrary, the
relatively low-pitched rooms with the beamed ceilings and
the historic windows deep in the old walls caused you to feel
safe and cozy. It was hardly a visit to a traditional museum,
more like a personal reception at some collector's home,
though someone with enough room to display the collected
treasures.
Guided by both Mrs. Krahe and Mr. Laub I went through
the exhibition, viewing books arranged thematically,
chronologically or by the use of special techniques. Both
my guides told me all kinds of anecdotes with special items,
characteristic details were pointed out, showcases even were
opened to show other remarkable pages or movable details.
I was privileged to hold and play with the extremely rare
three-dimensional paper museum of Das kleine Belvedere,
oder: Mignon-Bilder-Gallerie, published in 1839 by the
intriguing Viennese firm of H.F. Miiller, the equivalent of
London's S. & J. Fuller. Fascinated to see what techniques
had been used, changing the paper pictures on the walls and
turning over the pages of the accompanying booklet that
describes the then newly-built Belvedere Museum in Vienna.
The pictures shown there and for this paper toy reproduced
in miniature.
I was shown the technique used in the early Darton's
Moveable old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog (ca. 1 860) with
its movable parts cut out of the background illustration and
fastened with a string at the lever between the leaves that
cause the movement. Meggendorfer and Nister movables
came into action and we mixed and matched the rare
Meggendorfer booklet Viel Kopfviel Sinn (1898) done in an
illustration technique of red-hightened pencil drawings,
otherwise rarely used by him. We had a closer look at some
never-seen movables, leporellos, books with growing pages,
carousels, books with pieces to insert, dissolving pictures
from the 19th century, the use of honeycomb paper for some
rare "pop-ups" by Wilmsen from Philadelphia, etc. And
21
always the well informed comments of Hildegard Krahe,
foil of new information, corrections of usual attributions
or theories about the production and distribution of
movable books in the past, anecdotes about the makers,
details of personal meetings with some well-known
illustrators, remarkable or just funny details about the
purchase of single items. Never I have had such a
pleasant but instructive guided tour through any
exhibition! And it didn't end even during the simple lunch
we had on a sunny Salzburg terrace. It was a pleasure for
me to hear that Mrs. Krahe had given similar personal
guided tours to other friends from the circles of movable
and pop-up collectors who visited her exhibition from all
over Europe.
The Catalog
Peter Laub, Spielbilderbucher. Aus der
Spielzeugsammlungdes SMC A. Die Sammlung Hildegard
Krahe. Mit einem Beitrag von Hildegard Krahe. Salzburg,
Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum, 2002. 288 p.
Ills. ISBN 3-901014-79-0. Euro 25.00.
As mentioned, the museum reciprocated the generous
gift from Mrs. Krahe by offering to compile a catalog of
the whole collection of pop-up, movable, and novelty
books now in the possession of the museum, including the
small but exquisite collection already present. Since Mrs.
Krahe and the museum's curator Peter Laub have worked
so well together, there has come into existence a great
book that unites the knowledge of Hildegard and the
bibliographical skills of Peter - and the hard work of both
- and that in a preface is called "the first major European
monograph on the subject."
The sturdy book, measuring 27.5 x 22 cm. and
containing almost 300 pages, starts with a preface by the
museum's director Dr. Erich Marx thanks Mrs. Krahe.
Next there is an introduction (by Peter Laub?) that places
the books within the collection of the Toy Museum that
already had an historic collection of paper toys and, a
speciality, a very large and special collection of toy
theaters. The collection of movable and novelty books now
numbers 323 dating from 1839 to 2002, including about
50 titles the museum already possessed. The catalog is
intended "... to be a handbook, a work of reference for
interested people, collectors and scientists, but before all
it likes to continue the pleasures that contain its objects.
That is the reason why we have enclosed in this book all
items of the collection with at least one, mostly however
with more pictures."
Jahrhunderte" (Manifestations of movable and novelty books
throughout the centuries) and split up into 10 further
paragraphs is a kaleidoscopic survey of hitherto mostly
neglected or unknown aspects of the history of movable
books, richly illustrated in black and white. It is a text that
needs to be read by anyone who intends to know the history
of movable books. This is a quick English translation of that
text.
To give just an impression of the subjects discussed:
starting with the 1654 Alsop-turnup there is information
about the early (American) turnups as published by Barker,
Gustav Peters and of course Sayer; but also about another
forerunner of pop-up books, the peepshows printed in the
1 8th century by Engelbrecht in Augsburg. There is a very
informative paragraph full of new information about the
early production of paper toys and movables (small cards
with wonderful moving mechanisms found only half a
century later in movable books) and even the first movable
and pop-up books (from 1835/1836) in Vienna during the
Regency period ( 1 800- 1 840). Special attention is given to
the firms of H.F. Miiller and M. and J. Trentsensky which
published a variety of interesting novelties in that time and
can be compared with Fuller and his Temple of Fancy from
London in the same period.
She writes on the beginnings of production of movable
books in England in the 1850s and 1860s (Dean, Darton)
and the international cooperation between the makers in the
1880s. Thrilling information is there about some new
discoveries she has found in relation to Meggendorfer: a rare
and unknown movable book Hinz und Mops, never noticed
before, but now described and pictured with its English
(Artistic Pussy), French, Czech and Italian editions; and the
example of a do-it-yourself paper toy from 1 834 that appears
to have been the model for the well-known "dancing master"
from the book Lustiges Automatentheater (Comic Actors).
Paragraphs on books with acetate pages that cause optical
illusions; on the books with "pop-ups" in honeycomb paper;
on Harold Lentz, Blue Ribbon and their connections with the
early Walt Disney; about some lesser known paper engineers
from the 1940s and 1950s such as Tony Sarg, Julian Wehr,
Bruno Munari and Jiri Trnka. But also critical notes on the
quality of the recent Meggendorfer reprints and the
commercial reasons for making movable books from
originally flat picture books of Nister. A copy of the Nister
title from which the illustrations were used to make three-
dimensional reprints (Round the Hearth) is enclosed in the
collection. The final paragraph, "The 5 1st Star of America:
Pop-up Country," has an appreciation of the work of Waldo
Hunt.
The next 20 pages are the contribution of Hildegard
Krahe mentioned in the subtitle. The text, under the title
"Erscheinungsformen der Spielbilderbucher durch die
It is a wonderful contribution, giving a wide survey of the
field of study that has occupied her for so many years; full of
new information, fuller still of reasons for further
22
researchers in the unknown aspects of the history of
movable books. The text makes the catalog a requirement
for anyone interested in pop-ups and their history.
The main part of the catalog ( 1 59 pages) has been
reserved for color pictures of all (notice: all!) copies in the
collection (even the few doubles). Over 1,700 pictures
show the cover of very book, at least one but mostly more
pictures of representative spreads, and from the rare items
all spreads! The result is a great pictorial encyclopedia, a
bibliography in photographs, filled with pictures of not
only rare and expensive collector's items, but of hundreds
of pop-up and novelty books that are familiar to the
average collector. A feast of recognition and a joy for
hours and hours of page turning. I wondered how the
museum could make it for this price! The last 100 pages
have the '"usual" bibliography in which every book has its
bibliographical description (even the thickness of a book
has been given in centimeters), and an extensive
annotation. Again, no relevant information has been
omitted, quotations are richly given, biographical dates
are painstakingly researched, all the books belonging to
the Krahe collection are marked as such, the titles of the
original editions and their publishers have been
mentioned, etc. There is hardly anything to imagine that
you would want to know about the book that you cannot
find here. Even the "remakes" of some books, built out of
(color) photocopies by Mrs. Krahe with her bookbinding
skills are neatly constructed. All have the same treatment.
The book ends with two helpful indexes: one of the names
of included people and one of the publishing houses. A
remarkable nouveaute: there is no reference to the usual
folio reference works but they are almost exclusively to the
relevant informative websites of the internet.
There is only one thing I don't understand, why was
the illustrator chosen as leading principle of the
classification? For most people I don't think the name of
the illustrator will be the first thing they think of
regarding a specific book. How friendly a bibliography is
for its users is an important criterion and, I think, the
alphabetical classification by the name of the author or the
book title would have given better accessibility. Since
listings are by illustrator, the lack of an extra index by
book title is a handicap for an easy tracing of a books.
Conclusion
An 80 th birthday is a special event for anyone. But
Hildegard Krahe's birthday was made extra special by the
the Salzburg exhibition of her collection and the great
accompanying catalog. And so thought Mrs. Krahe herself
when she said: "I consider the exhibition and the catalog
the crown on my working life." She considers Peter Laub
to be one of the six boys she knew as a girl she would
have; the missing other five she found in some of the men
who grew to be her friends through their shared interest in
children's books or more specifically the movable books that
have had such an impact on and brought so much pleasure
in her life. And if you think this article reads like a
hagiography: you are right! For Hildegard Krahe is a good
friend of mine. But more, she is a very special lady - only old
by chance.
To purchase a copy of the catalog, contact Dr. Peter
Laub. Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum, Alpentrasse
75, A 5020 Salzburg, Austria. E-mail: peter. laub@smca.at
Notes
1. Karl Heinz Maier, Historische Aspekte zur
Jugendliteratur. 125JahreK. Thienemanns Verlag Stuttgart
1849-1874. Stuttgart, K. Thienemanns Verlag, 1974, 86-91.
2. A summary was published in Conference Papers
Loughborough '74. International Conference on Children's
and Youth Literature. Bremen 1974.
3. Georg Ramseger (Hrsg.), Imprimatur; ein Jahrbuch fur
Biicherfreunde. Neue Folge. Band IX. Frankfurt am Main,
Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen, 1980, p 198-206.
4. Marginalien. Zeitschrift fur Buchkunst und Bibliophilie,
number 70, 1978, p 1-36.
5. Lothar Meggendorfers Lebende Bilderbiicher.
Ausstellung des Puppentheatermuseums im Miinchener
Stadtmuseum. Miinchen, Puppentheatermuseum, 1980.
6. Hildegard Krahe , Lothar Meggendorfers Spielwelt.
Miinchen, Hugendubel Verlag, 1983.
7. Hildegard E. Krahe , "Bayemnah und weltbekannt"
Lothar Meggendorfer zum 150. Geburtstag. Traunstein,
Stiftung Heimathaus, 1997. Traunsteiner Museumschriften,
Band 4.
8. Phaedrus, 1988, p 73-90.
More About Books in this Issue
The New York Times Book
Review (November 17, 2002)
named K nic k- Knack
Paddywhack! one of the 10 "Best
Illustrated Books 2002." Paul
Zelinsky has been a winner four
times times previously
Kees Moerbeek's Rumplestitskin is a hand-crafted
limited edition book. The beautifully illustrated large pop-up
comes in a presentation box shaped to fix the book. For more
information about the book contact Kees at
kees.moerbeek@wxs.nl.
23
Pop Up!, Continued from page 6
Signage in the lobby and various other locations directs
visitors to the "Pop-Up!" exhibition on the second floor.
However, "Leaping Off the Page" is the first show one
encounters. It's hard to miss, being located on the ground
floor in two small side galleries straddling the main
corridor.
Although running concurrently with the "Pop-Up!"
exhibition, this little show seems to take its cue from a
single-day event, held on October 1 2, introducing children
to pop-up construction. It details the various stages in the
creation of a pop-up, from concept to print, using as
examples works by David Carter, Ron van der Meer, Jan
Pienkowski and Robert Sabuda. A wall-mounted panel
introduces and summarizes pop-up production and there
are biographical panels on each of the artists. Cases
display original art, pencil dummies, color separations,
proofs and more for some of their most famous creations.
There are no prizes for guessing the books featured.
The show's graphics are brightly colored and fun,
having apparently recruited a few of David Carter's bugs.
I'm sorry that I was out of town and missed the event. I
would have taken some of our younger family members.
Why was it just a one-day thing?
"Pop-Up!" is upstairs in the Getty Exhibitions Gallery.
The show graphics, like the banner hanging outside,
feature a brightly colored jack-in-the-box. Great design.
Who did it? There's a large 3-D version at the entrance to
the exhibition. The show proper begins with a panel on
Waldo Hunt and Intervisual Books. I have never met the
gentleman but I know that this panel should be bigger.
Much bigger. In letters of gold.
The exhibition is basically a large room divided into
several open-ended spaces, each with between one and
four themes or sections. These are announced in large
letters high up on the walls, drawing the visitor from one
area to the next in a mostly chronological progression.
The books are nearly all grouped in display cases, with a
few singles. Each book has a letter beside it, keyed to a
descriptive card either hanging from the front of the case
or mounted on the wall. Books are in most instances
identified by title, artist, publisher, country and date or
period. Large panels also introduce each section along
with biographical details for featured artists and
publishers.
Early Books
The oldest on display are volvelles, revolving dial
books used by 16* Century astronomers and scientists.
One dates from 1 528 Venice, another from 1 584 Antwerp.
These particular little moving assemblages of yellowing
parchment entered the world at the time of Michelangelo,
Shakespeare, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. They were the
palm pilots of their day, and perhaps passed through the
hands of Galileo.
There are several examples of mid- IS* Century to early
1 9 th Century Harlequinades, also called "metamorphoses" or
"turn-up" books. There are also Toilette books, mostly
teaching devices containing small pictures with flaps that lift
to reveal something of meaning underneath. A lady's toiletry
cabinet, a properly-set dining table and so on, apparently
intended to instruct children of the upper classes, or socially-
aspiring adults, in the rules of proper etiquette. Are these the
first movable books designed for kids? If so, they couldn't
have been much fun. But as sociological examples of their
times, they are fascinating. The fun part seems to have taken
another few years to evolve.
Peeshows
These feel like the opposite of pop-ups. Pop-ups spring
out at you and invite you to look at them from all angles.
Peepshows turn inward, forcing you to observe from a single
restricted viewpoint. Yet, paradoxically, they draw you into
a grand illusion, a miniature world that seems to expand as
far as the eye can see. It looks like forever but is usually no
more than one or two feet. Clever stuff. And so deceptively
simple. The examples here include a view of the Great
Exhibition at London 's Crystal Palace in 1851, an opera
scene, and a procession of the 1977 Silver Jubilee of
Elizabeth 11.
Dean & Sons
This section
deals with the
London publisher
who developed
and produced the
first true pop-up
dimensional
books, and more
sophisticated
changing picture
books, in about
1850. These are
also probably the first movable books to be made specifically
for the amusement of children. And they actually tell stories
rather than just depicting isolated scenes. The stories are
simple, mostly involving small children and small cuddly
animals in assorted small misadventures. Short verses
accompany each spread, but the images are clear enough to
carry things without much need for words. One of the best
on display is Tale of an Old Sugar Tub, the story of a boy, a
girl and a dog (naturally). The boy and girl get trapped in a
barrel, which falls into a river and floats away with them
inside. The faithful hound dives in, they grab its tail and are
pulled to safety. The spreads are very dimensional, the barrel
has round sides and a solid-looking bottom, and although
Tale of an Old Sugar Tub
24
you can't see the movement, it looks as though their arms
and the dog's tail articulate in some way. Update the
clothes and it could be published today without
embarrassment. Why doesn't someone do that? Or at least
bring out a reproduction of this one?
Panoramas
These are spectacular, unfolding to a width of, perhaps,
six feet, and about a foot high, with richly colored, fine-
detailed illustrations. All from the late 1 800s, they include
Grande Chasse made in Paris, containing rather warlike
scenes, mostly showing grandly uniformed people on
horseback pursuing an assortment of less fortunate
creatures. There's another one, from Germany, called
Buffalo Bill's Wilder Westen. It contains scenes of Bill
himself galloping across the plains chasing bison, Indians,
and whatever else is moving. And the illusion of
movement in these totally static pieces is extraordinary.
They really appear to leap out at the viewer. Also being so
wide, the effect is a little like a freeze-frame from one of
the old Cinerama movies, but better.
The "Panoramas" section includes a couple of other
movable book forms that could hardly be called
panoramic, but this is where I encountered them. First,
there are several examples of "Moving Picture Books"
from the late 19 th Century, two-piece constructions where
a lined transparency is slid back and forth or up and down
over a similarly lined illustration. According to the
caption this results in a repeated impression of a simple
movement, like flickering flames or a person's eyes
opening and closing. It obviously can't be demonstrated
and is poorly lighted, but you still see these in modern
variations, so it doesn't need too much imagination. The
most interesting point is that one of the items displayed
has a cover designed by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec,
showing an elegantly dressed lady, seated at a table,
actually using one of these things.
Next to this is a case of "Stand-up Books" in which the
page opens to a right angle and the scene stands up like a
stage set. These are mostly images of zoos, animals,
children and so forth, 1880-ish. Beautifully printed and
colored with intricate cut-out work. In the same display is
a procession of animals arranged in a spiral which, if set
up in a straight line, would stretch probably 1 feet or so.
Wonderfully detailed die-cuts. I think it all folds down
into perhaps a foot square. Some of these stand-up books
are, I believe, Ernest Nister productions, which makes this
section a kind of transition point from which the show
examines a handful of important contributors to the
development of pop-ups.
Ernest Nister
Was Ernest Nister the Walt Disney of movable books?
Judging from the biographical notes here, I'd say they
might have a few things in common. Like Disney, Nister
took a hitherto low-profile art form and turned it into an
entertainment for the masses. And, also like Disney, once
established, he did none of the hands-on creative work
himself. His genius was in bringing together, organizing and
directing an army of talented people who he inspired or
cajoled into giving him what he, and as it turned out the
public, wanted. Nister's revolving picture books, dissolving
picture books and stand-up books sold well for decades, right
up to the beginning of World War I. This section features
several fine examples. They mostly seem to have catered to
the late Victorian fondness for images of adorable children,
puppies and kittens, and, depending on the season, adorable
bunnies, angels, elves and Santas. There is a single, I think
hand painted, cardboard revolving picture, about two feet
across, in the middle of the display. It's unidentified but I
assume was some kind of production mock-up, or maybe a
shop window display.
There is also a display case of Nister Greeting Cards.
These ancestors of modern-day "Pop-Shots"-type cards
contain enough sugary sentiment to give you a severe
toothache. But they are considerably more complex than
their descendants. And you can't help admiring the skill of
the artists and production people who designed and
constructed such elaborate, multi-layered affairs using lace-
like papers and embossed board separated by colored
accordion pleats. With all the adorability, the cherubs, the
roses and the frilly die-cuts, a lot of thought, effort and
creativity went into these pieces, some of which must be
among the most extraordinary message bearers ever sent.
Lothar Meggendorfer
Unlike Nister,
Meggendorfer seems to
personify the term "hands
on." The impression from
the descriptive panel is that
he did just about everything
himself. His wonderful
mechanical action pieces
show a great sense of
humor which, judging by
the twinkling little self
portrait on the wall, was
genuine. He looks like
everyone's favorite
grandfather. His work on
display here is a
representative cross
section, from the lever-operated story books, through
changing face books, to a Doll's House that's less a house
than a series of miniature stage sets connected one behind
the other, in which the same three children interact with
what appear to be the servants — maid, cook, governess,
music teacher, gardener. The parents are strangely absent.
Comic Actors
25
only appearing in a pair of distant portraits on the parlor
wall. Maybe that's not Mom or Dad either. I wonder
whose home life it's supposed to depict. The mechanical
books show people in everyday situations but always with
a little twist, like the pompous-looking chap in underwear,
ironing his trousers from Comic Actors ( 1 890). The not so
everyday situations include what looks like someone
fishing for alligators. Meggendorfer manages to combine
several small actions in one figure to achieve a lifelike,
unfailingly humorous effect. The results look so simple
and effortless, yet meticulous planning and craftsmanship
were surely behind all his ideas. His all-around mastery
included making the lithographic stones, one of which is
displayed in a case alongside the illustration printed from
it.
Vojtech Kubasta
According to the biographical panel, during his
lifetime Kubasta never enjoyed the recognition he
deserved. Today he'd probably be regarded as one of the
Czech Republic's more significant cultural assets. At the
height of the Cold War, it apparently required delicate
political footwork by his London publisher to bring his
books west, although they were still produced by Artia of
Prague. Three types of book are shown here. The simplest,
and the only one I was familiar with, is the series based on
folk tales like Little Red Riding Hood, and Puss in Boots.
Uncomplicated designs and mechanisms with strong
graphics, inexpensively printed. Next is the "Tip & Top"
series. These are bigger and more elaborate with some
interesting effects, following the adventures of two
mischievous boys in various parts of the world. Finally, a
revelation, Kubasta's incredible "Panascopic Model
Books" from the early 1960s. These are big, single set
piece pop-up scenes combining rich colors and bold
designs with elaborate construction and some ingenious
mechanisms. Terrific. The ones displayed are Ricky the
Rabbit, Voyage of Marco Polo, American Indian Camp,
Moko and Koko In the Jungle, and my favorite, How
Columbus Discovered America. This features an intricate
model of the Santa Maria, with the Nina and the Pinta in
the background. But it's the fully-rigged Santa Maria that
makes the book, for me, one of the show's stars. What a
talented man. No wonder, as the bio describes, Waldo
Hunt was inspired by him. Nevertheless, Kubasta died in
obscurity, having won no awards nor achieved any great
fame and certainly no fortune during a lifetime of making
people smile.
1930s -1950s
This section covers a thin time for pop-ups, although
an improvement compared to the preceding years since
World War I, which, the show tells us, spelled the end of
the first golden age of pop-ups. Still, some interesting
work seems to have been produced. The period starts with
a milestone in 1930, when Blue Ribbon Books of New
York coined the term "pop-up" to describe some of their
products. I wonder what we'd all be calling them if Blue
Ribbon hadn't thought of that. The company helped keep
pop-up interest alive in the pre- and post- World War II
periods. There are examples here of the "Mickey Mouse"
and "Minnie Mouse" books of 1933, marking Disney's first
venture into pop-ups. I believe these sold well even in the
middle of the Depression. There are also some of the "Jolly
Jump-Ups." Other Blue Ribbon books from the 1930s
include The "Pop-up" Mother Goose, several more Disney
productions, and a splendid (non-Disney) The "Pop-up"
Pinocchio. Further along, next to a Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer from 1939 and Hopalong Cassidy of the late 40s,
sit three 1958 pop-ups from Japan. Although the type is in
Japanese, they look very western. There's Cinderella,
Transportation, and Trains. I wonder of any of the more
traditional Japanese art has ever been given the pop-up
treatment? All those beautiful woodcuts would seem to be a
natural. Maybe something based on "One Hundred Views of
Mount Fuji." It could be called
"Ten Views of. . ." Regarding these
three, they're quite dimensional
and it would be interesting to see
them working. Of course, it would
ft be interesting to see every pop-up
in the show working.
How Columbus
Discovered America
Which brings us to the
| demonstration part of the
I exhibition, consisting of a video
monitor running a 5-minute loop
§ showing pop-ups being opened.
jjgfgjr- 3 The examples include some of the
Meggendorfers and Kubastas on
display, David Carter/David
Pelham's wonderful Ben's Box,
Pinocchio, and several other great books. The reaction this
video produces is interesting. Witnessing pop-ups in action
generated the most lively responses in most of the visitors
around me. Lots of "Wow!" and "How cool!" and "How does
it do that?" Very encouraging. Some appeared surprised that
what they had been looking at in the exhibition actually
moved. But those few seconds of delighted wonder, when
everything opens up, are what it's all about. Gets them every
time, as it should, and as it does all of us. Probably, in this
computer age, there are people who have never seen a pop-
up book, let alone handled one.
It doesn't matter. They came. Who came? A mixed
bunch. Families with children, a couple of business types
bearing cell phones but thankfully not using them, a large
hairy gentleman in black leather biker gear who went
through the entire show. Perhaps he'd heard about the
Harley-Davidson pop-up. I wanted to see his reaction to this
but felt that following him around would not be prudent. The
ratio of children to adults was about 50/50, with a good
26
number of teens and pre-teens, probably because the
library's Children's Literature wing is on the same floor
directly opposite the exhibitions gallery.
Intergraph its. Inc.
This section deals with pop-up advertising and
promotional items produced by another of Waldo Hunt's
organizations. The TransAmerica pop-up advertisement
in Time magazine started it all, causing quite a sensation
and generating a surge in that company's business. Also
included are dimensional ads, point-of-sale displays and
product inserts for Lee Jeans, Honeywell, Maxwell House
and so on. Del Monte has a terrific western roundup scene
with cowboys and a chuck wagon. The "Wrigley Zoo" is
a series of interlocking collectibles featuring pop-up
animals, with just one example here. My favorite is a
remarkably detailed full-size typewriter for IBM that I'd
swear is the same Selectric III on which I learned to type.
Also here are a couple of cases that seem out of
sequence, displaying a mix of pop-ups from the 1 960s and
1970s. I particularly liked a series of five from France
using the Tin-Tin comic book character. Very dynamic
pops and good graphics. There's some more Disney,
including the large 3-D cover models for 20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea and Cinderella, and a couple of other items
published in connection with motion picture releases, The
Adventures of Doctor Dolittle and A Pop-up Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang.
Contemporary
This is the last and biggest section, covering the 1980s
to the present. Seeing so many of the great pop-ups that
have come out of this period all in one place, all opened to
their best spreads, is a little mind-boggling. It's what I'd
do with my own collection if I had the space, and if we
didn't have several small children frequently running and
crawling around the house. At this point the old urge to
also jump about clicking my heels returned, but a security
guard was hovering, probably nervous of any loony who'd
spend so long looking at a bunch of kids' books.
There are far too many works in this section to
mention all but a fraction. Most will be familiar to anyone
reading this. Particular favorites of mine include Greg
Hildenbrandt's Book of Three-dimensional Dragons,
Mathew Reinhart's seriously hilariously scary The Pop-up
Book of Phobias and the Pop-up Book of Nightmares,
Automobiles, made in Switzerland with some delicate cut-
outs incorporating clear acetate, Brooklyn Pops-Up, The
The California Pop-up, Flight, and the National
Geographic series of nature books. Plus of course anything
in the cases of "Tops of the Pops" and blockbusters, from
some of pop-up's best and brightest: Universe, Evolution,
The Facts of Life, The Human Body, Ron van der Meer's
pack books, everything by Robert Sabuda, ditto David
Carter and Kees Moerbeek, Jan Piehkowski's Haunted
House and Robot (naturally), Elvis and The Royal Family.
And so on and on.
The Contemporary section has a particularly good idea in
giving visitors a hands-on opportunity to learn more about
pop-up construction. Two tables are set up with mounted
pages from that excellent guide The Elements of Pop-up,
along with larger versions on thick board. Perhaps this was
also used in the "Leaping Off the Page" event.
Across the rotunda, in the Children's Literature
Department, glass-fronted cabinets on top of bookcases
display pop-ups from the library's collection. I believe that
this is where the "Leaping Off the Page" event took place.
Downstairs, the library gift shop carried about three dozen
modern pop-ups by an array of contemporary artists, most of
which I'm sure any Movable Book Society member would
have.
I have two minor criticisms, which seem ungrateful after
such a huge effort has been put out by so many people, but
here goes: first, no catalog. Not even a simple printed crib
sheet. It would be nice to have something as a memento.
Second, the exhibition lighting is variable. The peepshows
are self contained with their own light source, so they are
fine. The tall bookcase-type display cabinets had built-in
lights that were mostly okay but left some shadows in the
wrong places. The table height display cases in the middle
of each area relied on ambient lighting, primarily coming
from the ceiling chandeliers, which are beautiful in a
beautifully restored room, but aren't much help when you're
trying to see what's going on in one of Kubasta's
"Panascopics."
None of this really matters:
what does matter is that
someone had the knowledge,
resolve and energy to put on a
terrific show. And someone
found the money to pay for it. I
think "Pop-Up!" and "Leaping
Off the Page" between them
succeed on several levels. They
convey the pure, simple fun of
moveable books — the "wow!"
reaction that pop-ups
invariably get, sometimes from
the most unlikely people. And
if one point of an exhibition is
to spread the word and make
converts, then, judging by what
I heard and saw, they
succeeded there, too. Finally, if yet another purpose is to
give pleasure and affirmation to the converted, speaking
Printed sheet for
Haunted House
27
only for myself, both shows worked wonderfully. Everyone
involved with the conception, creation and production of
these exhibitions deserves great credit and sincere thanks
from pop-up people everywhere, even those who weren't
fortunate enough to be there. Because more people now
know about pop-ups and more people have bought them.
So more will be produced. And that's good for us all.
I look forward to my next visit, this time with the six-
year old member of our family, who has been handling
pop-ups with care since before he could walk, and who
instinctively understands more about them than I ever
will.
The photographs used in this article were supplied by
Frankie Herndon.
Pop-ups in the News
"Pop Goes the Book." By Elizabeth Bukowski. Wall Street
Journal. October 25, 2002. [Story about the Los Angeles
Public Library exhibition.]
The Guiness Book of World Records has officially
established Aesop 's Fables as the world's largest pop-up
book. Created by Roger Culbertson, this book, with pages
2I/2 feet by 4 feet, was displayed at the Cornell Museum of
Art & History in Defray Beach, Florida. The museum is
planning a promotional campaign to display the book and
after that it will be for sale. [For more information about
the book see Movable Stationery, Volume 10, #1,
February, 2002.]
New Publications
The following titles have been identified from pre- =
publication publicity, publisher's catalogs, or advertising. u [
All titles include pop-ups unless otherwise identified.
<x>-
Alice 's Pop-up Theater Book. By Nick Dench field and 2
Alex Vining. Macmillan Children's Books (UK).
0-3339-6137-4.
ot-
to-
(D|
col
Oi
Disney's Pop-Up Princesses. Disney Press. $12.99.
0-78683-390-4.
Dreamland. Book Company
Intl. $15.95.
1-74047-21 1-x.
Fly Away Home. Book
Company Intl. $15.95.
1-74047-152-0.
Gilbert 's Birthday Surprise
Mini Pop-up Book. Book
Company Intl. $7.95 1-74047-243-8
Magic Planet. Book Company Intl. $15.95.
1-74047-187-3.
Mouse 's Christmas Eve: With Pop-up Mouse. Innovative
Kids. $14.99. 1-58476-125-3.
Playful Planet. Book Company Intl. $15.95.
1-74047-182-2.
Catalogs Received
Aleph-Bet Books. Catalogue 70. 85 Old Mill River Rd.
Pound Ridge, NY 10576. Phone: 914-764-7410. Fax:
914-764-1356. Email: helen@alephbet.com.
http://www.alephbet.com
Jo Ann Reisler, Ltd. Catalogues 58 and 59. 360
Glyndon St., NE, Vienna VA. Phone:703-938-2967.
Fax: 703-938-9057. Email: Reisler@clark.net.
http://www.clarke.net/pub/reisler
Sharon and Steve Robinson. "1930s Blue Ribbon Pop-
up Books." cr_antiques@saber.net.
Stella Books. Pop-up List.
www.stellaandrosesbooks.com/Pop-Up-18-10-2002.htm
Pop-up Minibeast Adventure. By Nick Denchfield and
Anne Sharp. Macmillan Children's Books (UK) 14.99.
0-3339-6395-4.
Speed Machines.
Book Company Intl.
$12.95.
1-74047-133-4.
Sunny Days. Book
Company Intl.
$12.95.
1-74047-212-8.
Water World. Book Company Intl. $15.95.
1-74047-180-6.
Book Company Intl. titles are available online from:
http://www.pentonoverseas.com/pop-ups.htm
28
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